Nerve Wracking Day Three

     Apparently, I did not wish hard enough the other day for good luck on our trip.
     To start the day off, I woke up at 8:30 with a splitting headache.  It hurt so badly, all I wanted to do was go back to bed and sleep it off.  However, Kyle and I needed to make some headway today, so I packed up the car and cleaned the room up.  Before we headed off, I stopped by the Danlitskis one more time to thank them for last night.

     When I poked my head into their room, they had the morning news playing on the TV.  As I watched, the announcer stated that the FDA had shut down all the fast food companies across USA, including McDonald's, Jack in the Box, and Burger King.  When I heard this information, I greeted it with a smile.  I have disliked those greasy fast food places for years, and was happy to see that their nutritional problems were finally being addressed.  In the back of my mind, I recognized that this would make it harder for Kyle and me to find cheap food on our road trip.  However, my glee over the demise of fast foods surmounted this concern.
     Kyle and I still felt stuffed from our dinner last night (the half of our lunch from yesterday was huge!) so we decided to start driving without eating breakfast.  Before we could hit the road, we had to fill up our gas guzzling car again. As Kyle filled up the car, my headache intensified suddenly.  I pulled some Advil out of the first aid kit I had packed, but it did not seem to do any good.
     When the car was filled up, Kyle and I decided to drive as far as Kansas City today.  However, due to the circumstances I will relay, that goal was not reached.

     At 9am, we took I-80 out of Cheyenne and drove smoothly for several hours.  My head still throbbed, but I did not want to bother Kyle, so I did not mention it. Happily oblivious, he blasted music from the speakers and drove with the windows down.  Almost forty-five minutes into our drive,we crossed the Nebraska border - the fourth border on our road trip!
     Around 11, Kyle and I realized we were slightly hungry.  We opened up the bag of Skittles Kyle had packed in his suitcase, and they sustained for another forty-five minutes.  However, we decided to stop at the Ogallala Safeway to buy some snacks for the car.  We bought a bursting three pound bag of bright, red, shining apples.
     Chomping on the shining apples, we hit the road again.  Thankfully, my headache seemed to die down at this point in our journey.  To help pass the time, I took random pictures of Kyle as he drove (do not worry, I did not distract him). With my headache gone, I now enjoyed the blasting music and wind blowing in from the windows.  A very quick two hours later, we arrived in the town of Gibbon.
     Although we had eaten several juicy apples, Kyle and I were still hungry.  We filled up the car quickly at the R and R mini-mart and then decided to buy sandwiches at Subway.  The Subway was jam packed with people and I was nearly pushed out of the line several times.  One time, I was shoved directly into an older lady standing right behind me.  As I apologized profoundly to the lady, Kyle tapped me on the shoulder, saying something about a bathroom.  I nodded to him and then turned back to the woman I ran into.  She was very understanding and we chatted for the twenty minutes it took before we were allowed to order.  I ordered a Veggie Delite sandwich for Kyle and I to split, and sat at a table waiting for him to get out of the bathroom.
     After fifteen minutes, Kyle was still in the bathroom.  I decided to grab my Harry Potter book from the car and read while I waited for Kyle to come back.  I read the first five chapters falling deeply into my favorite world of Harry Potter.  At this point, it had been a half an hour since Kyle had left for the bathroom.  I know people occasionally have bad stomach aches, but a half an hour seemed a long time to be in the bathroom.  I could not figure out which would be ruder; check the bathroom or calling him on his cell.
     I decided to check the bathroom.  I stood by the door of the bathroom until the next male came by.  When he did, I politely asked him to see if Kyle was in there.  Moments later, the man came out again, saying that no one was in the bathroom except for him.  Bewildered, I thanked the man and returned to my table.
     I had no idea where Kyle could have gone.  He would have had to pass my table in order to leave the building.  Granted, he could have slipped out while I was reading my book, but I would have thought that he would stop at the table once and talk to me.  I called Kyle's cell, but it went straight to voice mail.
     Although confused, I knew Kyle would return from wherever he was so I went to sit in the car.  I opened my half of the sandwich and started reading again, looking up every few pages searching for Kyle.  When Harry, Ron and Hermione were about to go after the Philosopher's Stone, I took a quick glance at the clock. It was 4:30.   It had been three and a half hours since I had seen Kyle last.  Cursing my love for reading in my head, I called Kyle's cell one more time.  It went straight to voice mail again.  I was filled with terror.  WHAT HAPPENED TO KYLE?

     Mind on hyper-drive, I thought of kidnappers, robbers, serial killers, thugs.  I had no idea where to start looking for my missing road trip buddy.  And then, like a light in a dark room, the answer came to me.  The police.
     I rushed into the Subway and begged the cashier for directions to the nearest police station.  I must have looked distressed out of my mind, because the poor teenager hurriedly told me where the police station was.  When I got back into the car, I called Kyle one more time.  Voice mail again.  Fear mounting, I rushed to the police station two blocks away.
     Upon arriving, I tried to calm my racing heart enough to explain to the police what had happen.  The man, Mr. Brown, was very sympathetic, and calmly listened to my story.  When I finished, he asked me if I would call Kyle one more time.  Slightly calmed, I dialed the number.   Once again, it went to voice mail.  Mr. Brown asked if I had any other way of contacting Kyle.  When I told him I did not, he and his partner Mr. Choi decided that they would walk around town for a little while and look for him.  At this point, it was 5:45 and Mr. Brown told me that they would most likely walk around for an hour or so.  He suggested that I stayed at the station until they returned.  As the left, I felt some of the anxiousness disappear.  I was doing something to find Kyle, and that calmed me down greatly despite my rather unpleasant surroundings.  The station smelled horrible; smoke reeked from the holding cell,  the smell of rotting food on one of the officer's desks snaked through the air, and sweat seemed to emanate from every person.  Moreover, it was one of the loudest places I have ever been in, with the police radio on non-stop and a baseball game blaring from a TV in the back room.
     I decided to sit outside on a bench in front of the station.  The wind teased the strands of hair coming out of my pony tail, causing them to dance in my face.  As I sat there breathing in the cool, sweet air, I realized that my headache had returned stronger than ever.  However, I ignored it and watched the people walking by. My heart surged at the sight of every man walking by, praying that it was Kyle.  None of them were.
     By 6:30, I thought I would have a heart attack if I continued to search for Kyle in the crowd walking around me.  I grabbed my book and tried to immerse once more into my book.  I could not do it.  By the time Mr. Brown and Mr. Choi returned, I was once more a nervous wreck.
     They had not found Kyle, which I had expected.  We reentered the station and Mr. Brown called the local radio station to announce Kyle as a missing person.  I called Kyle again, and once more it went straight to voice mail.  Mr. Brown told me that the announcement for Kyle would be on the radio ever half an hour.  I thanked him and went out to the car to wait and see if anyone would call in about Kyle.
     I could not bear to think what I would have to tell Kyle's parents in the morning if he was not found tonight. How can a person explain that their friend has gone missing on a road trip?  To take my mind off these troublesome thoughts, I looked for a place to sleep tonight.  I finally found Windmill State Park in Gibbon that had a campground I could pitch a tent in.  My sleeping arrangements settled, I started reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  As I read about Ms. Norris becoming petrified, I saw Mr. Brown walking towards my car.  I opened the door with trembling fingers and got out of the car.  The wind bit at my bare arms as Mr. Brown came up to me.

     He smiled and told me that Kyle had been found.  I staggered into the car with relief.  He was at the gas station where we had filled up our car.  I did not care where he was, I was just relieved that he was safe.  I thanked Mr. Brown and Mr. Choi and speedily drove to the gas station.
     I was so happy that Kyle was safe and exhausted from worrying that I did not even ask him where he was.  Maybe I will ask him tomorrow.  Right now, all I want to do is sleep off my headache and fear from the day.

Route: We took US 85 South out of Wyoming, and then took I-80 until we reached Gibbon, Nebraska.

Food:

Breakfast: none, not hungry

Lunch: Subway Veggie Delite $3.25

704 Highway 30

Gibbon, NE 68840

(308) 468-5708

Snacks: Safeway three pound bag of apples - $3.99
611 N Spruce St
Ogallala, NE 69153
(308) 248 - 3670

Dinner: None for me, too worried about Kyle missing.

Police Department:

Gibbon Police Department
17 Gilmore St.
Gibbon, Ne 68840
(308) 468 - 5554

Lodging: 
Windmill State Park - $11

2625 Lowell Road

Gibbon, NE 68840

Gas:

Kum & Go - $27.65

215 East Lincoln Way

Cheyenne, WY 82001

R and R mini-mart - $44.10

1110 Highway 30

Gibbon, NE 68840

(308) 468-5823

Money spent today: $89.99

Money remaining: $470.46