Good Morning from Longmont, Colorado! We arrived last night at Kath & Tom's place just before 8:00 pm after a non-dramatic but somewhat eventful 7 hour drive from Lincoln. Once we hit the road around 1:00, we went west on I-80 - we were keenly alert of every bump and rattle, given the previous night's and morning's 'activities'. All went very well, Ruby Jane was accelerating well, sounded good, and the scrapes to the bottom of the exhaust virtually disappeared. After the first 30 minutes of high nerves, we settled in a bit. We had the radio tuned to the local rock station, until we got out of range, then it came to trying to figure out the new stereo system. (This was the last piece of the puzzle - never go cross country without a kickin' stereo - it adds a lot to the trip. We got it done at the very last minute, lots of issues with parts being out of stock, installers not being available, etc. - but it got done. Why such a big deal? Well, this is a stereo system of Brandon's own design - and rather powerful, at that. Along with the Alpine head unit, he has one digital amp, and a high-powered mono-block amp for the 8" JL Audio subwoofer, and MB quartz component speakers in the doors (with tweeters). Sounds pretty good...) First challenge was signing up for Sirius while driving - via the internet! Gotta love the Verizon wifi card - we were able to get the subscription and get linked up - but still had to figure out how to navigate through the 'user friendly' head unit. Then had to figure out how the ipad connection worked out, as well as getting the bass/treble/subwoofer balance correct. So this is how one passes the time during the initial phases of a road trip in a new/old car.

The rest of the trip through Nebraska was rather uneventful, thankfully. That is, until we got near the border of Colorado, which is when we encountered our first rainstorm. It was a dark looking horizon, one that those in the west are familiar with when a heavy summer storm is coming (or, in our case, we were driving into) - and over a 30 minute period it kept getting closer and closer. Many of you are probably wondering why this is such a big deal. Well, aside from the fact that Ruby Jane is 45 years old (and it likely has developed some leaks along the way), the windshield wiper switch isn't working - which means no windshield wipers! We do have Rain-X, though - and put it through its paces, to say the least. The first storm we encountered wasn't too bad - it was on the Nebraska side of the border. But once Ruby Jane crossed into Colorado, it was like Nebraska was making one last grab to pull her back into the state, and make us want to turn around. This storm was pretty intense - to the point that we had to actually slow down to nearly 30 mph as we were hydroplaning (and aside from the Rain-X, couldn't really see much of anything!!). And we did find out where the leaks were - mainly on Brandon's side, through the fresh air vent, a little on the passenger side, but not much... After the storm, it was beautiful sunshine and started getting hot. The rest of the drive went great, we climbed up in altitude to Longmont and are now at 5,000 feet above sea level - but she's still running great, aside from the lack of oxygen. We did, however, discover a minor exhaust leak, so will get that checked out today. Stats for the first day: Distance driven - 483 miles gas mileage - 15.3 mpg Time on the road - Approximately 7 hours Saw lots of corn, loads of trucks, bunches of cows, and basically the heartland of America. For those of you interested in getting a concrete lawn ornament (you know, like a full size elk or bear), we saw a nice place just outside of Ogallala in Nebraska... Time did not allow us to delve into the home of Glen Miller (Fort Morgan, Colorado), or to see the Trading Post near Sutherland, Nebraska. Alas, perhaps next time....