Welcome to Nebraska

Monday, June 30. Day One. To Nebraska and Meeting Jim.
I flew to Omaha, NE from College Station with a connecting flight in Houston. The flight from CS to Houston was delayed, then canceled, then rebooked, and, finally, turbulent. Approaching the landing in Houston we had a moment of turbulence that was as bad as I've ever experienced. The plane suddenly pitched left and then immediately back right and then left again before correcting itself. It was enough that I thought we either had major mechanical issues or that the pilot fell asleep during the approach. My best guess is the latter because we landed fine. Amateur. I was on the very last row on that first flight and then had to more or less run through the terminal to my second flight only to find it delayed. Once I got on it, I realized I was yet again on the very last row and this time against the window next to a man who looked like he was Jewish and a professor. I'm not sure about either and mean neither derogatorily, only descriptively. Immediately my seat mate fell asleep with his head back against the seat, began snoring, and proceeding to spread his legs so wide that when I put my tray table down it hit his knee and woke him. He was crowding me and it was more than I could bear. I knew I would wake him by putting the tray down. That's more or less why I did it, though I did use the tray. And I guess as payback, the four year old little girl in the seat in front of me spilled her Sprite through the seat onto my brand new backpack. But by the time I realized my bag was wet I didn't care because I wanted off the plane so bad.

I arrived in Omaha and met Jim, my partner on this job. I've really enjoyed him, though I was a bit worried initially. Jim's a 47-year-old husband and father of three girls. He's worked behind a desk for 25 years doing mostly software and computer development work. He's lived in Florida his entire life and has been best friends with the company owner since they were in Elementary school. He's a bit out of his element up here, I think, and he was quick to admit that he had terrible directional skills. Both of which could have been rough on this gig but haven't played much of a part yet, what with my being to the outdoors and to navigating what Bono is to wearing huge sunglasses and being pompous and saving the world. I'm glad Jim's here.

We drove from Omaha to Beatrice, NE Monday night and checked into our hotels. We were meeting a 57-year-old pipeline veteran named Terry there so he could explain to us what the hell we were doing up here. We called him when we got to Beatrice and he could not have been less interested in meeting us that night. So we ate dinner at a local joint called Risky's. It was not great. I guess we should have known from the name. I was slightly unnerved by the riff-raff that both ran and were hanging around my hotel that night.

Tuesday, July 1. Day Two. Meeting Terry and Realizing This is Not Exactly How I'd Imagined.
We met Terry at 8 Tuesday morning and promptly realized that he was as unsure about what we were doing there as we were. Not a good start for me. But shortly we figured it all out and got in our cars and headed south to the pipeline.

Tuesday was overwhelming for me and was the most frustrating day so far. In my mind I had prepared myself to walk along an above-ground line that sat on a clear cut right-of-way. Something like this:

Instead, in lots of places the line looks more like this:

The pipeline is buried all the way from where it starts to where it ends near Cheyenne, WY and we have to find it and walk to all of the major and minor water crossings to check for water erosion. Sometimes you can't get to it because of the crops. Sometimes you have to walk an extra half a mile around the corn in order to get to a tiny creek with zero signs of erosion. Needless to say, all that I had created the trip to be was left flailing in some Nebraska cornfield south of Beatrice. We spent most of Tuesday in the car and not on the ground walking where I wanted to be. I did get to walk one good stretch by myself and had to make my way through three electric fences, a foreshadowing of things to come. That stretch was fun, but it was the highlight of the day, which wasn't a good thing. We ate lunch in a tiny town called Steel City. It had a population of 84 and we ate at the only place that seemed open in the whole town. Terry left us about 2 and we met him back at Risky's that night for dinner.

Tuesday night I pretty much went back to the hotel thinking, "I didn't come to Nebraska for this, but I'm here and it is what it is. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Wednesday, July 2. Day Three. Nebraska Gets Better If You Just Start Walking.
Wednesday started like Tuesday. We followed Terry out to the line and he went over a few things with us. Then, he put us in the lead and just followed us to be sure we were doing alright. One of the first places we came to Jim and I had to get out and trek down a private drive, past a house, and through a livestock pen to get to a ravine and stream right on the line. As we got out of the car and started to climb the gate Terry mentioned to us that the owner was a bit crazy so he'd stay out by the gate in case he came home. I took that to mean, "In case that man comes out of his house with a gun I'm going to stay on public property and near my car." The man never came and the walk was great. It was the longest we'd done and I really enjoyed it.

Terry left us for good sometime before lunch. Jim and I ate lunch at Subway somewhere along the way and then we finished out the day. We drove up to York to spend the night that night at a Holiday Inn.

By the end of the day Wednesday I was more or less enjoying myself. We were out of the car a good bit and Jim and I were getting along better all the time. I officially became the navigator and let Jim do all the driving. I've really enjoyed the navigating part. The maps we have only show a narrow section along the actual pipeline so we have to work and figure out where to go so it's challenging.

I really started appreciating the landscape Wednesday and for the first time felt pretty well pleased to be here.

More to come tomorrow. I hope. Maybe. We'll see.

Comments

[thad]

Are you reading On the Road or Travels with Charley right now? Either way, I like this. I think about you several times a day and wonder what you're doing, and oddly your description is almost exactly what I imagine. Only there are more crazed dogs and corn farmers with axes in my imagination. Maybe you have that to look forward to.

Oh, and...Linda Rondstadt? Really? Does Mom know you pilfered her cd collection before you left for the heartland?

[thad]

Also I politely request that you remove that annoying spambot prevention code nonsense until/unless you have spambots showing up here. I've had like two spambot comments ever in 4+ years with typepad.

[Britt Norvell]

Spambot prevention removed. And Linda Ronstadt rocks. Especially this album, because it has boat loads of Aaron Neville. Mom and I always listened to this album on road trips growing up and it left a soft spot in my soul. Sorry if that makes you less proud to be my brother.

[thad]

I don't know that it makes me less proud...actually, I don't know much. But I know I love you. And that MAY be all I need to know...ow-ow-ooooow-ow-ow.