Our last day in our home, Ryan and I decided to host a farewell party as a Art Open House and BBQ. We ended up hosting about 60 people at our house. Our neighbors were so helpful in getting food together and helping us grill some dinner. This event was a great way to say goodbye and to give Ryan the chance to sell a few peices of art. Our cranberry red walls were filled with framed originals, which looked beautiful and like an art gallery. We were thrilled to see so many friends who were excited to buy some of Ryan's work. From what we sold, we will make a donation to the Fox River Country Day School's Environmental Education Program at the school where Ryan and I worked for the past few years.
After packing up the last bits of our house in the rain, chasing a friend's cat through the woods as she escaped from the car, and then cleaning up the house, we were delayed on our departure and pulled an "all nighter" our last evening in our house. We said farewell to our friends and neighbors, and then saw a few that were waking up the next day.
Ryan and I are now officially moved out of our house and are on our way out west. Our first stop on our travels was Kansas City to see some of my family. It was great to see the place my Grandpa is living. It is really beautiful and he is waited on hand and foot, which makes him happy to be there. After a nice visit with my grandpa, aunt, uncle, and three cousins, we left Kansas and headed north to O'Neill Nebraska for a course Ryan is taking on Holistic Management Biological Monitoring. Basically he is learning simple techniques to improve the health of the land and how you can quantify land improvement. This should help him feel more prepared for his new job working with bison.
When we drove through the last stretch of Nebraska, we enjoyed watching half of the sky light up with lightning over the rolling green hills. I told Ryan it looked like we were going to be rained on during our night out camping. Since it looked like it was passing north of us, Ryan wanted to give the camping a go anyway. As we set up our camp site, the lightning seemed to be getting closer. This was when Ryan said, "Bethany, I think we need to create a plan A and B since it looks like we are going to get hit soon." I chuckled since I resisted setting up the tent since it seemed that the hotel we stopped in for internet was the best option. After talking about our plan A and B, we both agreed to check in at that hotel. So we grabbed our sleeping gear and decided that we did not have enough time to take the tent down before the rain would hit. Then, just as we got in the car the rain came pouring down. The hotel was about three blocks away from the camp site. There was so much water coming down that by the time we got to the hotel, there were streams of water in the street already. The hotel (Historic Golden Hotel) is a historic landmark in this area and was built in 1913. Each room is decorated differently, and we got the room with the newly remodeled bathroom. It was a restful night and we were happy to be dry.
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