So, I rarely take too many vacations, not that I can NOT get away, I FEEL like I shouldn’t. I am filled with great regret when I go on vacation. What’s wrong with me?

But this morning I set out to drive across my home state of Nebraska, from the southwest to the northeast. The apex being South Sioux City, then turning south to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to see family that live there.

When I left on vacation on my new motorcycle this morning. It was as I assumed, early on it was a great ride, cool and sunny, a slight tail wind. The country side was beautiful, great tree filled valleys and amber rolling hills, winding through the high plain of the mid0-west. Then the heat kicked in about one o’clock, and I started to feel need to cool off.

In nineteen-eighty-three, I suffered a heat stroke while in basic-training. The doctor told me then, to expect my internal thermostat to ‘not work so well’, especially as time goes on. This adds to my guilt, lack of enthusiasm, I feel an internal struggle to turn around and go home. Yet, I struggled on, stopping every twenty to thirty minutes to cool off.

There is a fix to every one of life’s struggles, for this one, I discovered that a spray bottle, filled with ice-cold water, and placed in my cooler, is the perfect tool to keep the heat monster away. I would pull into a small Nebraska hamlet, and find a shade tree next to a park or even a neighborhood home. I would spritz the heck out of my face, neck arms and torso, with the brisk breeze that started later in the day, it didn’t take long to beat that little heat dragon back into it’s own corner. I then climbed back on my two wheeled stead and continued on this way, until I arrived in Grand Island, about four-thirty.

Finding a hotel, with ‘room in the inn’, was an easy task, not too many people in hotels for the forth of July holiday. Although, this is where my simple wish came in. A nice glass of wine to go with a nice meal. I felt good after my afternoon’s heat dragon battle. So, I went to the hotel’s lounge. I figured that a convention hotel would have a nice wine selection.

Okay, I was wrong. They have black box wines… in cans! Not a good keynote moment to cap the day.

So, not wanting to be disappointed any further, I searched my cellphone for a nice Resturant with a good wine list. Thinking I could have a glass with dinner and bring the bottle home to have another in the leisure of my hotel room.

Okay, poor assumption for $500 dollar Alex! They literally do not have any fine restaurants in GI! So black box it is.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better turn out for vacation day two?! I can only hope.

Having said all this, I still had a great ride, pit-stops and all.