Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tour De Husker 4/17-4/19 2009: Part I

By the time David arrived at my apartment on Friday I was all ready to go. Everything was packed neatly, awaiting storage in his coupe. We were running a bit ahead of schedule, which was good because we'd end up losing time later on. For now we were golden; quite literally, thanks to a break in the recent cold spell. The weeks leading to this one had weather that could be best described as tumultuous. If it was to be warm that day the winds would be blowing well in excess of 25mph. Those days were few and far in between, most days were cold and as of late, wet. This day, however, the sun shone bright. Our drive started with us hanging our arms out the windows, taking it all in.


The trip was scheduled for three hours one-way. First we would pass into Missouri, take a short jaunt into Iowa, and then swing West into Nebraska ending in Lincoln. Our bit to Missouri passed quickly and quite taken by the prospect of showing me his home and hometown David suggested that we stop off in St. Joseph. Obviously beaming with pride, David excitedly showed me his parents collection of recumbent tandems. The Neidinger's passion to cycling (although unorthodox) became evident to me through David's retelling of their numerous family excursions and cross-state rides. As David jokingly put it, his dad was super strong because he'd end up pulling his mom around town all day. "Sometimes she'd even pedal," Mr. Neidinger laughed himself when I met him on the following Sunday. Although, at the time, the sight of an aerospoke equipped recumbent-tandem quite took me back I thought it somehow fitting. It did the stories justice. While looking at the family's second tandem a buzzing noise grabbed my attention. Shooting a glance under a set of stairs, I witnessed the automatic litter box self scooping. "Whoa, high-tech," I thought to myself, I'd never actually seen an automatic litter box in person before. "The cat has good timing," David mused. Both of us being hungry we quickly began our foraging expedition, moving from the garage upstairs. Rounding a corner into the kitchen the first thing that caught my eye was the hanging aero garden that was currently growing basil and daisies. Walking deeper into the kitchen a venerable collection of family photographs (mostly biking trips) and cycling motifs hung on the walls and adorned cabinents. This struck me as something really cool. Though the various statues and pictures of bicycles were obviously of an older taste, the fact that such a display existed in a family home was exciting. I'd never seen anything quite like it. I began to get a feel for the Neidinger family. They are efficient people, proud of who they are, and enthusiatic about their sport.


Grabbing some fruit, yogurt, and granola bars (before marveling at the trashcan with an automatic lid) David and I jumped back into his coupe and were off. The next bit of our journey is one long detail; at high speeds his car rack vibrates extraordinarily loud, we listened to music I hadn't heard in 8 years, we listened to some music I had never heard (including some hilarious rap music), the road was flat, we drove fast, we discussed the fact that Iowa has no idea how to maintain a decent stretch of highway, and then ultimately missed our turn and went a full hour off course. On the bright side Omaha wasn't that bad, because that's where we ended up. Though dismayed by our detour, I can honestly say that "all's well that ends well." What I'm getting at is that we stopped at the most impressive gas station I've ever seen in my entire life; Fantasy's Phillips 66. I wish we would have taken a picture. At every pump was a flat screen TV (albeit playing Bill O'Reilly). The awesomeness didn't stop there. Inside was a small marketplace and bathrooms fit for a king. Oddly enough there was even a chair in the men's room, don't ask why. Grabbing a banana and some gummy sharks we prepared to pay and hit the road again. Upon checking out, the station's clerk responded to my amazed remarks about Fantasy's laviousness by calmly informing me there were "only twelve in Omaha." Honestly, I didn't know what to say to that. He also called my gummy sharks "dolphins." Obviously he was an extraordinarily irrational person. I took my purchases and left without further comment.


Our detour into Omaha had set us back an hour, but with Banana and "dolphin" sharks in belly I was fairly content. David, however, was not. He was freaking out. I've never seen the kid so riled up. For another hour we drove to Lincoln, you'd think it was the worst hour of his life. It probably had to do something with all that Bill O'Reilly we watched at Fantasy's. When we did reach Lincoln I saw David switch from depressive to manic. I stayed with the car and bikes while he ran inside to check in to our room. Upon his return he excitedly exclaimed that, "he'd just seen the most beautiful girl in the world." I forget what he said her name was (I never could remember it during the trip either), but she was supposed to be gorgeous. Trusting David's judgement I hurriedly grabbed an arm's load of stuff and made for the reception desk to behold this beauty. Later on in the weekend David admitted that he was under the influence of road stupor and that he had beer goggles on, because whatever he name was wasn't a knockout. We had finally made it to Lincoln.

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