Indiana Bound – Page Five

After 1,995 miles we found Newton, Iowa. Wow! What a find! I’m being facetious. I really wanted to be farther along today, but we stopped in Omaha for 1), a pedestrian bridge across the Missouri River and 2), Boys Town. Keeping the peace is important. We stood with one foot in Nebraska and the other in Iowa on the bridge… whoopee. Boys Town, however, was interesting so it was worth the stop. Father Flanagan, an immigrant Catholic Priest, gave seven boys down on their luck a home in 1917 and it hasn’t stopped since. Now there is a large campus in Omaha devoted to making wayward youths, both boys and girls, into productive citizens and fulfilled adults. It was worth the stop. If you visit Omaha, take the self-guided tour.

We left Omaha around 2:00 P.M. and entered the great state of Iowa. We immediately noticed the difference; the speed limit reduced to 70 mph and the roads’ condition made that speed nearly unsustainable. Talk about pot holes, cracks and uneven pavement! I thought one or more of our tires were flat a number of times, but it was only the road. So, we drove carefully between 60 – 65 mph through Des Moines and arrived in Newton.

Newton is a town of about 15,000 and its only factory, Maytag, that employed 4,500 workers closed recently. Newton is depressed and it’s obvious. If the highways are bad, Newton’s streets are worse and parking lots and stores are rundown. I can’t imagine the rundown look happening only in the past year or so, however. Like Iowa, Newton has been neglected for ten or fifteen years. It's the neglect that happens when people don't want to pay taxes and politicians use taxes stupidly.

We ate dinner at Palma’s Steakhouse, a local restaurant with local fame. It, too, has been neglected and paint and a brighter dining room would do wonders; we ate on the patio and, except for a busy fly, it was just fine. Chris’ steak was excellent; a New York Steak, medium and as good as Dude’s Steakhouse in Sidney, Nebraska. I had Tenderloin de Bogna that, while good, wasn’t as good at the New York. I recommend Palma’s, but eat on the patio unless they’ve remodeled the place. The food was good.

Palma’s owner of 30 years is a Greek Lady with a heavy accent who is pessimistic about the future and said she is thinking of selling the restaurant and returning to Greece where she owns a home. She said she was tired of taxes and the government taking over. I wonder what she’ll find in Greece where the government really has more control. I doubt that she’s paying more taxes and her real complaint is her decline in customers; an effect of the economy, not a government takeover.

The young man who served us, mixed our Margaritas and talked had a much better perspective. He wants to buy the restaurant, remodel it and repair the neglect. I’d say that’s a better attitude.

I notice that the I-80/I-65 junction, where we turn south to Dan’s place in Lafayette, is only five blocks from Michael Jackson’s Gary Indiana home. We may drive by to see what it looked like.

Dave

Indiana Bound – Page Four

Well, we will have to try Dude’s Steakhouse again next time. Doxycycline got the best of me, enough that I Googled the drug’s side effects and dosage instructions. I’m sure I read Kaiser’s instructions correctly, but it turns out that it should be taken with food, not on an empty stomach. So, I stopped taking it long enough to get my stomach settled. I’ll start again today at breakfast and see how that goes.

I talked with a retired U. S. Army veteran from Oklahoma. He owns his own weed spraying equipment and was working on a railroad project around Sidney. He gave an interesting account of going from state to state for jobs since his 1997 military retirement. He said that he had not seen the extent of railroad repair projects that were being done this year, primarily because of the stimulus money. He said the crews were larger and they were removing and replacing tracks for hundreds of miles instead of doing only minor repairs. His account sounded good to me. A complete overhaul is long overdue. I was surprised to hear him say a good word about Obama.

Nebraska is a pretty state. We saw lake after lake along Interstate 80, as well as green rolling hills, cattle, corn, soybeans and wheat and a blue sky with white clouds that I believe are different than other states. I could live here. Another unique thing about Nebraska is its Rest Stops along the highway. It has one about every 30 miles. I can’t say how much I appreciated that! We spent the night in Lincoln, NE.

We will probably enter Iowa by noon or so, and I hear it’s stormy there. We’ve change our route, too. We’re staying on I-80 to Chicago, or there abouts, then taking I-65 (I think) south to Lafayette, IN. Dan, get ready for a short visit before the longer visit.

Dave

Indiana Bound – Page Three

We left Evanston, WY at 8:35 A.M. with me on an empty stomach. Doxycycline, to fight a tooth infection, must be taken on an empty stomach and I do believe that my system rejected the bottom half of my body. I was feeling better by noon.

I didn’t know today is Sunday! Dude’s Steakhouse is closed on Sunday. Crap. Yes, we drove 473 miles today to Sidney, NE and we made it by 4:55 pm, even without my ass attached. I can also say that the car’s gas mileage is great; 34.273 mpg today. But, don’t get too greedy trying to get the most miles from a tank of gas through Wyoming and Nebraska. There are stretches of 30 to 40 miles (and maybe 50) between gas stations. We were down to one notch on the fuel gage and very fortunate to find a card-activated gas pump in Kimball. The only gas station in town was closed, but the pump took my card; 13.2 gallons for a 14 gallon tank. Sheesh, that was too close.

The Great Divide got our interest today and it turns out that Interstate 80 runs along it until about the Wyoming 155 mile marker at which time it begins to climb to the top of the Divide. It peaks at 7,014 feet above sea level, according to my GPS. That’s higher than Tahoe. We were trying to coordinate our location with the map’s location for the peak when a highway sign announced our arrival, “Great Divide – 7,000 Feet,” then we began our descent Eastward. Just like that; no fanfare, no fireworks. We anticipated the moment for an hour, we knew we were close, the sign appeared, I took the GPS reading, and it was all over. I’m inclined to think The Divide is a woman. What’s the lyrics? Wham, Bam, thank you ma’am.

We’re staying the night at the America’s Best Value Inn, across the street from the closed Dude’s Steakhouse. We ate at the Oya Grill Mexican Restaurant 150 feet from our motel. The “y” in the Oya is spelled with Jalapeño Peppers. Hope my ass is unattached again tomorrow, or I’ll be sorry.

Chrissy drove for an hour or so today and I believe that’s what made me feel better. If there’s anything that will make me forget my own problems and physical ailments, it’s Chrissy driving; especially entering Cheyenne where “Business” 80 and I-80 part ways. It was at that moment, at 75 mph and the Business 80 exit adjacent to our position, that I heard “Oh my God! I need to take that exit!” From a semi-stupor I came fully alert and yelled “NO, KEEP THE WHEEL STRAIGHT.” The moment passed and thank God my ass was not attached or… Well, there’s no need to go into those tedious cleaning details.

The sky looks bigger in Wyoming and Nebraska. The storm clouds are moving in and I hear thunder. There’s nothing like a good rain for a good night’s sleep. We’ll have steak and eggs at Dude’s in the morning.

Dave

Indiana Bound – Page Two, Part Two

The coffee is good and the people are friendly at 6:30 am in the Evanston, WY Days Inn. I’m waiting on Christine to get ready to go, so I have an hour to kill. My friend George says he spent a night at the one and only rest stop in the Salt Flats between Wendover, NV and Lake Point, UT. I don’t doubt that. One can get sleepy on that long, straight road that seems to never end. In fact, there are signs all along the road that says, “Drowsy Drivers: Pull over and rest,” or words to that effect. The signs occur at least every two miles or so… so, it is a very boring stretch of road. So, whether George finally gave up half way across the flats and was overjoyed to see that rest stop where he could let his eyes close, or whether he just said “to hell with this!” and stopped commiserate with other travelers, I’m sure he had a good night’s sleep under the Utah sky.

But, that’s behind us and we’re looking forward to a day in Wyoming and it is a beautiful state. If we were on Interstate 90, just 100 miles north, we could stop at Devils Tower made famous, at least to me, in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” starring Richard Dreyfuss. The Aliens made a secret landing, to all except a chosen few, on the mountain’s top. Speaking of secrets; today’s headlines tell of a secret CIA counterterrorism program kept secret even from Congress who is responsible for oversight of the agency. Apparently there is evidence that Vice President Cheney personally directed the CIA to hide the program from Congress because none in Congress could be trusted with a secret. Democracy didn’t serve us well in the Bush years it seems. If we don’t investigate and hold individuals responsible for their actions, Democracy will not serve us well in the future either. Democracy depends on the rule of law.

Can’t seem to escape Cheney! And, I can't seem to put it aside for a week or two!

Dave

Indiana Bound – Page Two

After a steak and eggs breakfast we managed to leave Elko, NV behind us at about 9:30 am. Ya see? We are improving on our departure time. But, alas, we didn’t make it all the way out of Nevada without ONE MORE STOP, at Wendover on the Utah border. Awk! But, we couldn’t help it. After several cups of coffee, it was absolutely necessary. Even as my brother Dan gave me good advice about the slots, i.e., to leave them behind, stepson Marcus won out by his partially right-on prediction “you won’t be able to get out of Nevada!” Well, we finally did.

We drove straight through Utah to Evanston, Wyoming, primarily because there is nothing in Utah if you’ve already stopped in Salt Lake City. There is not a single gas station between Wendover and Lake Point, UT, approximately 150 miles. So, forgetting to gas up can be a big mistake. There is nothing between except a dried up salt lake, one microwave tower that’s been designed to look like a tree and a single rest stop. Our phones displayed five bars as we passed the microwave tower; zilch bars over the other 149.75 miles. We did pass three intersections where signs indicated civilization in towns or villages nearby, but nothing appeared on the horizon, so you couldn’t prove it by us. Take your chances.

I think after a short nap in the Evanston’s Days Inn, I’ll be ready for dinner. Maybe tomorrow we can make Sidney, Nebraska, where there is a restaurant where the finest steak dinner can be had. That’s 456 miles and a bit far for one day’s drive. We’ll see. Maybe we'll cut that down to two days just to have that steak dinner. We'll never make the reunion on time!

Dave

Indiana Bound – Page One

Well, so much for getting on our way in a big way. We left California about noon two days ago and, having left at noon, we got no farther than the Eldorado Casino-Hotel in Reno, Nevada the first day. My luck in Reno has always been nil, but we left Reno about 10:00 am Friday with an extra $80 in each of our pockets. For once, I felt no ill-will against Reno as its door hit me on the butt on my way out. We also left Reno thinking we could drive to Salt Lake City by dinner time. Not true. Nevada is using the stimulus money heavily on highway repair projects that reduce the number of lanes on I-80 to a single east bound lane in several long stretches of the highway where the average speed is 30-40 mph. So, we made it to Elko by 5:00 pm and decided that the next city was too far to drive and satisfy our dinner-time needs. (Sorry, Diane. When we talked on the phone and I told you we were close to Elko. I guess we were not. We were going 20 mph at the time and we didn’t arrive at Elko until 1 ½ hours later.) Chris, who is always good at finding good deals, called around for a reasonably priced room and we settled for The Stockmen Hotel/Casino. So, with the opportunity to win more at the slots, I soon dropped at least $100, maybe more.

So, my plan for this morning is to get the hell out of Nevada without, hopefully, losing any more money. It is 7:00 am as I type this, so it looks like we are going to get an early start. Assuming we are able to navigate through the stimulus projects quickly, maybe we’ll be in Wyoming by this evening.

Dave

President Al Gore

Can you imagine where America would be today if Al Gore had won the Supreme Court battle, and the election in 2000? Well, we could have a Republican President today instead of President Obama, which would be disastrous, but life, in general, would probably be a lot better.

The huge tax cut President Bush gave to the rich would likely not have happened, so perhaps we would have had a huge surplus instead of so much debt. The Iraq War would not have happened, further supporting a surplus instead of debt. Perhaps the Afghanistan War would not have happened the way it did. Perhaps other middle-eastern countries would be controlling the Taliban instead of the U.S., which in turn would not have required us to spend so much on that war. So, we can say to a large degree of probability that we would have been much better prepared to head off the devastating effects of the recession financially.

Al Gore is and was a leader in Green Energy, even way back in the 1990s, so perhaps we would have been much farther down the road to conversion to renewable energies than we are now. Thomas Freidman in his July 4^th Editorial, “Can I Clean Your Clock?” makes a great point; China is on the move to lead the Green Technology revolution. We are way behind already; eight years behind. China doesn’t need to rely on a Congress to implement Green Technology. All it needs to do is to order it done, and it starts happening. In that regard, democracy hurts us because people like Representatives Boehner (Ohio) and Braun (Georgia) can stand up in front of the House of Representatives and talk others out of supporting the Clean Energy Bill, or water it down or delaying its passing and forcing others in Congress into making deals that costs billions to get the bill passed. Boehner and Braun and others like them carry the water for the oil industry, including Saudi Arabia and other oil producers, who lobby with lots of money to give to keep the status quo. They are voting against America, not for it.

How would have President Gore handle the financial meltdown? It is overwhelming opinion of economists that Obama’s current method is fundamentally right; to meet the recession and to avoid depression with huge influx of cash. That part of it would not have changed and even Secretary Paulson under President Bush finally came to that conclusion and implemented the TARP. Perhaps a Gore Administration could have left a new president a much more fiscally sound government than George Bush left President Obama. Perhaps the housing meltdown could have been foreseen and avoided much earlier than it was. Perhaps the toxic derivatives would have been lessened or avoided entirely and those companies that collapsed into bankruptcy would not have collapsed. But, some very brainy people missed it, so we’ll never know.

What about healthcare? Would President Gore have tackled that thorny issue? I believe he would have because there is no doubt that healthcare in the United States is simply out of sight. We already have no choice of doctor; we are forced to pick the cheapest policy. The uninsured go to the doctor who treats them, not to one of their choice. We already experience long lines unless we can afford, and so few can, better access. We are already controlled not by a government program but because of the lack of a government program.

President Bush’s legacy won’t only be the Iraq War, but complete failure of his administration in all aspects of American life. Like all of his jobs in his life, he failed as a President too.