Day 3

O'Neill, NE

Wheatland, WY

Flooded Missouri River

Merriman, NE

When we got up this morning, it was cold and overcast, and getting up early really wasn’t something Luc and I wanted to be doing. When we finished packing up the tent, I picked the tent up and was about to walk to the car and pack it away when I stepped on something soft. When I looked down, there was a lizard tail under my shoe and a lizard missing a tail running into the bushes nearby. At first, I was a little bit disgusted, but then felt badly that the lizard was going to have to live without a tail for a while because of my carelessness. I packed the tent into the trunk of the car and got into the driver’s seat, Luc in the passenger seat. We stopped at the Valero Gas Station in Laramie and filled up our tank for $45.38. At 8:00 we were on the road and had begun driving. We looked at the traffic report – construction was being done on I-80 for the day, so we had to find a new route. We would have to go north on I-30, and then exit onto 34, later exiting onto I-25 and then onto I-18, which turns into I-20. After that, we would have to stay on I-20 for the rest of the day’s trip. This detour has been very frustrating. We would have been able to get to Des Moines, Iowa, but are only going to be able to get to Sioux City, Nebraska – that is if everything else for the day goes as planned.

At 9:30, we stopped in Wheatland, Wyoming at a Burger King where we bought two pancakes and sausage platters costing $2.89 each, at a total of $5.78 for breakfast. In the car, Luc and I began to whine and complain about the trip. It was turning out to be a lot more exhausting than we thought it would be – up to 10 hours in the car two days in a row is a lot, and when you realize that you’re barely halfway, that doesn’t make you feel any better either. After venting for a couple minutes, we settled back into a comfortable silence where I focused on the road and not getting us lost, and Luc did some research on where we would spend the night.

While researching, Luc realized that the Missouri River had flooded, and instead of being able to get to Sioux City, we would only be able to get to O’Neill, Nebraska. Both of us were frustrated. I imagined what it would have been like to be pioneers – that would have made our lives much more difficult – and I tried to look at the silver lining. Later in the day, we stopped in Merriman, Nebraska at a Subway. We bought 2 $5 foot longs – one to split for lunch and one to save to split for dinner, similar to what we did the other day. At the subway, we considered buying chocolate, but decided that we needed to save up as much money as possible. We also stopped at the Cherry County Gas station and filled up for $46.42.

When I was about to get back into the car and drive away, a man came staggering towards me with a cup. His hair was greasy and his clothes were ragged and covered with stains. He looked at me sadly and begged me for money. "I...need it...the money I mean," he said. "Miss, I can't live without it. How, how, can I live like this?" And then he broke down. His mouth turned down and tears welled up at the bottom of his eyes. I didn't want to see a grown man cry. I immediately handed him a five-dollar bill. And I told him I hoped it helped him somehow, that it would somehow improve his life and I told him that I was under a budget and I needed to get to Montreal. I wanted to tell him my life's story, for some reason, he seemed like someone I could really talk to -- but I held myself back. And then I smiled at him and walked away. He was struggling to live off of nothing and I was struggling for a better life. I had a future, but he didn’t. And so I drove; away from the homeless man, away from what I hoped my life wouldn’t turn out to be, contemplating my future. Later, at 5:00 we got to O’Neill and parked our car at the Carney Park Campground. Putting up a tent there would only cost us $10 for the night, which we were ecstatic about. At the end of the day, we were down to $808.96.