Diary:
Kelly drove us both to Lincoln via a water park that we failed to get into because it was too full. Before that we had yet another substantial breakfast where we discussed the sexual merits of watermelon !
Lincoln was hot, too damn hot, somewhere between 95degF and 104degF depending which sign you believed. Oz bought a new fanny bag which sounds like the sort of thing that back in Blighty you would get by mail order or from a shop with blacked out windows.
We sneaked into the Capitol Building past the corridor of mugshots which showed that government officials in the state offices had the same haircuts and same glasses in 1991 as they did in 1942. Probably the same names as well. The view from the top showed that Lincoln was more of a wood with buildings dotted around. We managed to confuse the state prison with a grain silo. Easily done. I blame it on the heat stroke. The Capitol Building is apparently the fourth architectural wonder of the world. My guess at the first three - Great Pyramid, Taj Mahal and the EHB.
Met a couple of Kelly's friends in a bar and then set off for the Greyhound station. Did a quick "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when" etc. routine and then encountered the nutters due to get on the bus. An overnight Greyhound was every bit as bad as I'd imagined but I think I slept some of the way.
2011:
And I've never met Kelly since. Who knows what she's doing now ?
I think Bum Bags/Fanny Packs were fairly recent inventions back in 1991 - and yes we milked the double entrendre all over the USA. (Can you milk a double entendre ?)
I've no recollection what the watermelon conversation stemmed from and where it went to.
The EHB - the Edward Herbert Building at Loughborough Uni. I used to regularly have lunch in the Linford Restaurant (which we called the Errol - after Linford Christie) and queue up to wash my clothes in the launderette. In doing my research I came across this wonder of the modern age - students today don't know how easy they have it.
1991:
picked up at 00:15am by Kelly, a friend of Oz's from Estes Park. Can't be a real friend, she calls him Dave! After a short (approx 15 miles) drive from Omaha to Kelly's house which was, apparently, still in Omaha, Dave and Kelly swapped stories, and we sank a couple of beers and looked at Kelly's photos of Europe.
Zzzzzz....lots of sleep.
Woke up to a large American sweet breakfast and discovered, to our horror, that all the trains from Omaha to Salt Lake City were booked up for at least the next 13 days. Panic. After lots of wheeling and dealing, the plan became: Omaha -> Lincoln via Kelly's car, Lincoln -> Denver via Greyhound Bus, Denver -> Winter Park via thumb or Greyhound (we also had 1 Amtrak reservation) and finally rejoin the train to Salt Lake City at Winter Park. We shall see, watch this space. We also made provisional bookings on the rest of our trip at this point.
After the panic had died down we picked up one of Kelly's friends, Angela, and headed for the sights of Omaha. We visited the place where they both taught - an institution called Boys Town - but we were disappointed to find there were no scheduled gigs by the Boys Town Gang. We visited a creek and pretended to be Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky and some other bird from a Mark Twain novel. Shame the creek was a river running low. We visited a "small town" * (see John Cougar Mellencamp) and took photos of the hardware store - no Ike or Mr Cunningham. The saloon was a little disappointing as there were no swinging doors and no-one was thrown out.
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| Angela, Kelly, "Dave" |
Later on we went for a big (big) steak in Iowa (Idiots out walking again - in Nebraskan parlance) and visited the marketplace in Omaha. Very impressive and up-market. There was more life in one street than I'd imagined there was in the whole of Nebraska. Also discovered RH (raging hormone) syndrome and cow tipping.
* - Elkhorn
2011
During a Uni break Oz had been on a US summer camp with Stu-boy and had met Kelly during this period. Can't recall much more about this other than Oz making fun of Stu's knowledge of the US. Stu's pronunciation of San Joes springs to mind. Oz may have to fill in some details if he's so inclined.
I recall having french toast and water melon for breakfast - fantastic. To this day I love American breakfasts. During my time living in the US (93-95) I think my two favourite restaurants were Waffle House (scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, topped, diced and peppered) and iHOP.
Can't recall the context for the RH comment but don't think it had anything to do with the film. Also can't recall who Ike was.
