There are some days I don't feel much like running. When I'm lucky they coincide with a rest day...today I had no such luck. I was awoken by kids crossing the park for their first day of school. I overheard one of Little Wolf's sons, part of a family I met in the park last night, explain to his friends why there was a strange guy sleeping under the picnic shelter.
Reluctant to start I trudged on for a relatively short day. I started my initial walk through town with a check of the weather. The zero percent chance of rain promised yesterday was a distant memory as there was a 90 percent chance of thundershowers at 11 am. I couldn't run fast enough to beat that. Checking the radar, I watched this cute little blue storm cell quickly mature into a dark maroon monster that was unleashing its wrath over Alliance. I checked again at mile five and the odds of rain had been reduced to 10 percent. Apparently all of the clouds had drained themselves out. I dodged a bullet...for now. There is no sense in checking the hourly forecast here in Nebraska.
Between miles 9-14 I hit a wall really hard and had to stop several times to stuff my face with Twinkies and granola bars. At 14 I dug through the bear canister storing my food and found some rarely used caffeinated jelly beans. These, combined with a 30 minute nap, worked magic and I felt infinitely better. I decided I would listen to music out of the speakers on my phone while running for the first time all trip. The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society carried me through the final ten miles as the Big Sky blessed me with zero raindrops.
This rest and music lifted my spirits tremendously for the rest of the run. I hadn't been keeping up with my usual salute of a wave to cars that changed lanes for me, but resumed so after the break. The Nebraska Department of Roads' trucks represented a large chunk of traffic. I'd learned yesterday at the Sand Bar that the department recently cut a lot of jobs after they invented a shovel that stood up on its own.
I arrived to Cody and gave my host for the night, Todd, a call to let him know I was in town. He popped out of the nearest building, the Circle C Market, a store completely constructed and operated by students that have Todd as their principal and superintendent at Cody-Kilgore High School. The store project has been nationally recognized as a great way to give students entrepreneurial skills while providing a boost in business to the small town. It is also the only supermarket that uses hay bales as insulation.
After a shower and lunch with Todd's wife Peggy, I toured the town of 154. I started by visiting the 6-man football field and baseball field across from the Chessmore's home. I ran into the hardware store for a quick errand for cart maintenance where I was given the necessary pins free of charge. I bought a Pepsi for 75 cents and rounded it up to a dollar to cover the cost of the pins. I later paid a visit to the Circle C where I continued my bad luck with dairy by spilling chocolate milk.
Todd, Peggy and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, corn and cabbage from their backyard garden. Peggy shredded 16 pounds of cabbage after dinner in order to make sauerkraut. She combined her mother's recipe with storage tips from a German exchange student they had a couple of years ago. We ended the evening by watching the movie "Kinky Boots."
I stayed in a room that had belonged to one of the Chessmore's ten children. Over the course of their lives Todd and Peggy have had 31 children call their house home, taking in several foster children to help them through rough times. The most they had in a home at once was 21 kids. They lived as a family for several years on the Omaha Indian Reservation where Todd was the superintendent for the school. I was truly fortunate to be on the receiving end of such giving hearts for the night. Thank you very much to my grandma Rennaker for setting me up with such wonderful people.
Reluctant to start I trudged on for a relatively short day. I started my initial walk through town with a check of the weather. The zero percent chance of rain promised yesterday was a distant memory as there was a 90 percent chance of thundershowers at 11 am. I couldn't run fast enough to beat that. Checking the radar, I watched this cute little blue storm cell quickly mature into a dark maroon monster that was unleashing its wrath over Alliance. I checked again at mile five and the odds of rain had been reduced to 10 percent. Apparently all of the clouds had drained themselves out. I dodged a bullet...for now. There is no sense in checking the hourly forecast here in Nebraska.
Between miles 9-14 I hit a wall really hard and had to stop several times to stuff my face with Twinkies and granola bars. At 14 I dug through the bear canister storing my food and found some rarely used caffeinated jelly beans. These, combined with a 30 minute nap, worked magic and I felt infinitely better. I decided I would listen to music out of the speakers on my phone while running for the first time all trip. The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society carried me through the final ten miles as the Big Sky blessed me with zero raindrops.
This rest and music lifted my spirits tremendously for the rest of the run. I hadn't been keeping up with my usual salute of a wave to cars that changed lanes for me, but resumed so after the break. The Nebraska Department of Roads' trucks represented a large chunk of traffic. I'd learned yesterday at the Sand Bar that the department recently cut a lot of jobs after they invented a shovel that stood up on its own.
I arrived to Cody and gave my host for the night, Todd, a call to let him know I was in town. He popped out of the nearest building, the Circle C Market, a store completely constructed and operated by students that have Todd as their principal and superintendent at Cody-Kilgore High School. The store project has been nationally recognized as a great way to give students entrepreneurial skills while providing a boost in business to the small town. It is also the only supermarket that uses hay bales as insulation.
After a shower and lunch with Todd's wife Peggy, I toured the town of 154. I started by visiting the 6-man football field and baseball field across from the Chessmore's home. I ran into the hardware store for a quick errand for cart maintenance where I was given the necessary pins free of charge. I bought a Pepsi for 75 cents and rounded it up to a dollar to cover the cost of the pins. I later paid a visit to the Circle C where I continued my bad luck with dairy by spilling chocolate milk.
Todd, Peggy and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, corn and cabbage from their backyard garden. Peggy shredded 16 pounds of cabbage after dinner in order to make sauerkraut. She combined her mother's recipe with storage tips from a German exchange student they had a couple of years ago. We ended the evening by watching the movie "Kinky Boots."
I stayed in a room that had belonged to one of the Chessmore's ten children. Over the course of their lives Todd and Peggy have had 31 children call their house home, taking in several foster children to help them through rough times. The most they had in a home at once was 21 kids. They lived as a family for several years on the Omaha Indian Reservation where Todd was the superintendent for the school. I was truly fortunate to be on the receiving end of such giving hearts for the night. Thank you very much to my grandma Rennaker for setting me up with such wonderful people.
Cody, Nebraska
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