If you're thinking about going to Nebraska, DON'T!!

The one and only picture that I have of Nebraska...

I'm not sure what I was possibly thinking when I told Penny that we would only be 50 miles from Nebraska so we should totally go. I must have been under some illusion that Nebraska was a wonderful state or maybe I just wanted to cross another state of my list of visited states. Either way now that I've been there I never have to go back. I thought the trip into Nebraska would be like any other state on our trip, but boy was I wrong.


We started our journey to Nebraska right after the fireworks display at Mt Rushmore. By this time we had only had 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours so both of us were exhausted. We thought as soon as we get to Nebraska we will just pull over and sleep, but when we found ourselves nearing the border, the only town around was an abandoned town with 4 deserted houses. Now there is no way that I was going to stay in a town that didn't even have any lights but unfortunately the next closest town was 30 miles away. Now it was time for us to start getting creative. We turned on the cold air and I had family members texting me to help us stay awake. Surprisingly it worked and we were relieved to see the sign for Crawford, Nebraska. While I was distracted with texting, Penny let out a scream. I wasn't sure what happened and that is when she said she saw a funnel cloud. Now of course our hearts started racing and the adrenaline kicked in for both of us. All we could think about now was getting the heck out of Crawford. Unfortunately we were low on gas so in order to get out of town, we had to stop at a gas station.

We managed to find an open gas station since it was after 2:00 am. We pulled into the gas station only to be followed by a police cruiser. We didn't really think much about it because it was so late at night that maybe the cop thought we were going to rob the gas station, so when he left we felt a wave of relief flow over us. The car was still filling up when the second police cruiser drove past but this time he was spotlighting the building right next to the gas station. Now we were officially creeped out so once the pump stopped pumping she quickly put the nozzle back and I opened the door for her so we could quickly peel out of the gas station.

In our confusion we turned the wrong way out of the gas station and started heading further into Nebraska. Now I was telling Penny that she had to turn around and that is when we saw the truck put out from the alley where the cops were spotlighting. He kept getting closer to us and the thought of turning around and having that truck stop behind up, kept us driving in the wrong direction. We drove for a couple miles before Penny finally pulled over to the side of the road and with relief he went speeding past us. Of course we got a description of the truck just in case the police stopped us and asked us if we saw anything we could give them a full description.

Now we were finally headed in the right direction and clearly adrenaline was pumping through our veins. As we made our way out of town, Penny was distracted by the Bates motel on the left side of the road and that is when I saw it on the right side of the road. A rabid dog came charging onto the road, so I screamed "DOG" and then Penny screamed because I screamed. I can still see his beady little eyes glaring at me as his life must have flashed before his eyes. I'm just glad that he didn't leap up and climb onto our car. At this point not even that would have surprised me. He was like a little gremlin out for blood. As we were both screaming some how we manage to hold hands, now I'm not sure why we ended up holding hands maybe it was for comfort or for security, but either way we knew we had to get out of this town.

As we left town I wasn't sure my heart could take anymore excitement and that is when I saw another shadow out fo the corner of my eye. My first thought was, "Oh no the rabid dog is following us." As I looked closer luckily it was not the rabid dog but in fact it was a doe. Again Penny didn't see it so I screamed "DEER" but luckily for us the doe decided not to cross our path. By this point we were officially done with Nebraska. We didn't care if it was 40 miles or 400 miles to Wyoming, we were NOT spending the night in Nebraska. As if the nightmare of Nebraska could not get any worse that is when the fog started to roll in. It was like we were a part of scary movie and we were the main characters. I didn't want to be the main character anymore, I just wanted to sleep and get out of that blasted state. Luckily when we crossed the state line from Nebraska into Wyoming the adrenaline wore off and luckily for us we found a historical marker with a well lit parking lot for us to sleep in. I have never been more thankful for a car that has doors that lock and for the person that invented street lamps.