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June 6th-Nebraska

The Iowa morning was quiet. A few cars passed me by as I waited to cross East 13th Street. I was anxious in a positive way to get to the running path at the park just 1.3 miles away from where I’d stayed that night. Too, I knew I had a short drive to Bellevue, Nebraska for my next stay. And there too were beautiful, quiet, residential roads just about a half mile away from that hotel which I looked forward to running on.

I do enjoy having some familiarity in my overnight stays while driving across the country. Such as food places that I’d been to in the past in the same locale. Funny enough, no one would ever know just how friendly a town was if they hadn’t had an experience in the past that sent ripples of warm fuzzies down their spine. Which in turn was what made me look forward to Bellevue. However, before then I discovered more delights in Ames, Iowa.

If you hadn’t gone for a good medium mileage run or long walk past the US Agricultural facilities, 3M industrial area and other sites of your initial Ames, Iowa experience just off the I-35 North, you couldn’t know what else was about to be discovered.

As a car slowed for me to cross the street of four lanes, two in each direction. I waved then lightly ran across as I hit my watches’ stopwatch button. I got into a mostly empty parking lot of another hotel that was soon to be sold. The Italian restaurant had been in there, that was now permanently closed. I got to the light and yes, the grass was greener on the other side for sure.

I crossed, then as I arrived on the smooth, paved path I saw to my right a couple eateries aimed mostly at families with children. There were quiet medical facilities, mostly for pediatric care. And one area in particular was for children who have heart issues. I hadn’t noticed such details eleven months and two weeks ago on my last cross-country drive for our oldest daughter’s senior year new apartment inspection and move in. There were eye care places, a chiropractic office, multiple pediatric buildings and a veterinary office too.

Across from that, on the other side of the street I’d just come from was a Harley Davidson Motorcycle shop. Within a half mile as the path continued the buildings ceased to exist and it’d now become filled with trees and wooded areas on either side of the road as I ran down an incline, crossing a small road that appeared to wind upward into green, tranquil spaces. Then over a seemingly calm, clean brook. About a third of a mile later I entered the park path.

I ran the familiar path I’d remembered from last year. It was tree-lined, well-groomed. I ran by the river that one could do fishing at. I heard girls’ softball being played. I continued to run then crossed over the park road that led to an exit 200 meters later. Yet instead I ran further into the park as it’d brought me to a parking lot next to a playground.  There were construction barriers closing another area of the path, yet I had a couple choices. I could run where I’d run last year, or I could take a newly built wooden bridge that I hadn’t recalled from last years running there. So, I took the bridge and was surprised to find forest like trails, some brought me near a meadow and others looped around, meandering me through dirt paths of undulating hills. It seemed one could run ten to twenty miles without having to run the same exact path in the woods. I will say it was the most beautiful, rolling cross-country type wooded trail I’d run in. The vibe in that run in that woods reminded me of a cross-country trail I’d ran on in the autumn of 1977 in a cross-country race in Cresskill, New Jersey. I’d yet to experience that same pleasant vibe since then. I’ll say that trail in Iowa would be ranked as the number one cross-country wooded trail I’d ever ran on.

After putting in nearly eight miles in the park and woods combined, I ran back to the hotel. I got in about ten miles. It was perfect and the drive to Nebraska was under three hours. The past two days, I’d covered 1,156 miles of driving. So, this was a slight respite till I’d get to Utah.

Soon, I cleaned up, reloaded ice in my cooler, filled the car with gas and went off to Nebraska. Taking the I-35 South towards I-80 West toward Omaha as the last portion of that section of my journey was onto US-75 South/Kennedy Freeway. I now was about forty percent of the way to my final destination, a Hollywood, California hotel just over eight miles from our oldest daughter’s graduation site.

I checked in a bit early, then went for another run in the quiet residential areas of Bellevue. I then went shopping at the local Walmart for engine oil and a funnel, which I’d forgotten to bring with me from home. I checked out their housewares section. It was a tad sparse. I went and got a coffee, and soon it was dinner time. I’d started getting spoiled having constant hankerings for Mexican food on this journey. Those restaurants appeared everywhere I stayed, too there was a plethora of selections in nearly every place I’d stayed—well all except Ames, Iowa.---Jody-Lynn Reicher

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