We are Toast: Day Four

      I thought yesterday was bad, what with Kyle becoming lost, but today topped it.  Our car was stolen.
     I do not know what happened.  Kyle and I were staying the night at Windmill State Park in the tent we had brought with us.  We put the apples into the wooden cabinet, threw our suitcase into the tent, and locked up the car before falling into a deep sleep.  It must have been deep, because we certainly did not hear a person break into our car and drive away.

     I had planned never to see Mr. Brown, the policeman, again in my life.  However, because of the car theft, I was in his company again at 7 the next morning.  When he saw me come into the station, he gave me a small grimace-smile that clearly said "Dear God, she lost Kyle again?"  When I told him that our car was stolen, he nodded sympathetically.  He said he would keep an eye out for our car, but he would not be able to do much.  The thief may have stolen the car in the middle of the night, which meant that he could be in Wyoming by now, for all we knew.  We settled for creating a missing car poster for Mr. Brown to publish.
     The question we now had to ask was how were we going to travel the rest of our road trip? We still had all of our money, food, and belongings we had packed (my books were safe, thank heavens!).  We only needed a way to travel.  After conferring with Mr. Choi (Mr. Brown was copying our poster) we discovered that there was a bus line that traveled the same route we were traveling.  The train was going to leave at 9:30, so we had an hour and a half to worry about our lost car dilemma.

     I had done enough worrying to last me a lifetime yesterday, so I decided to distract myself by buying food to sustain us during the long, painful bus ride ahead of us.  We found a small grocery store called Foster's Family Food that had gorgeous looking food in every row.  Kyle and I decided to buy a three foot long BLT sandwich to sustain us on the bus.  We still had half a bag of apples left, so we figured that would be enough for us to eat during the day.

     After an excruciating wait, the Greyhound bus that was only means of transportation finally arrived.  The bus was jam packed and had a smell of human sweat in the air.  However, it was clean and Kyle and I managed to find seats next to each other.  We attempted to sit comfortably, and waited for the torturous journey that was bus riding to begin.
     The journey was horrible.  Every twenty minutes, we stopped to let people onto the bus.  It felt as though thousands of people were coming onto the bus, but no one was getting off.  Kyle was sitting in the window seat, listening to music and looking out the window, so I read Harry Potter to pass the time.  Thankfully, I am easily immersed into my book, so for the hour and a half that I read, time seemed to fly by.  I managed to finish reading Chamber of Secrets before I became aware of my painful surroundings again.  At that point, Kyle had fallen asleep, and I entertained myself by taking some pictures of him.
     Around 12, a mother with a little boy came onto the bus.  There were no seats open, and all the other people on the bus were jealously holding onto their seats. Kyle generously gave up his seat to the mother needing a rest, because that is the caring person that he is.  After a half an hour of gallantly standing on his feet as the mother rested, I switched spots with Kyle so that he could sit down.

     The moment Kyle sat down, the little child was entranced by him.  Every few moments, the little boy would peak up at Kyle, catch his eye, and dash behind his mother's arm again.  After fifteen minutes of coaxing from his mother, the little boy whispered "hi" to Kyle.  When Kyle smiled and said "hi" back, the little boy became much more out going.  Five minutes later, he was sitting between the two seats laughing as Kyle played games with him.
     As Kyle and the little boy played, I fought a vicious battle with the other members of the bus.  I called it...Snag a Chair.  Every time a person got off the bus, a mad rush to get the vacant seat occurred.  Snag a Chair is a very brutal game; just because you sit in the seat for a moment does not mean you get it.  I managed to battle my way into a seat, only to be pushed (PUSHED!) out of it.  After twenty-five minutes of Snag a Chair, I finally managed to snag one of the seats.  And although myriads of people later came onto the bus, I refused to give up the seat I had battled so hard for.
     The rest of the bus ride moved agonizingly slow.  We finally reached Carlyle Illinois, our destination for the day, at 7:45.  We were exhausted from our crazy bus ride, and just wanted to go to sleep.  We walked to Sunset Motel downtown and happily collapsed into bed.



Route: We took I-80 East out of Wyoming, then started on I-29 South once we crossed Illinois' boarder.  From I-29 East, we traveled on State Highways J and A, I-64 East, I-70 East, and US 50 East.  We also took many small streets in towns as the bus dropped people off, but there were so many of those I cannot remember a single one.

Food:
Foster's Family Food, Three foot long BLT sandwich $6.14 (Our breakfast, lunch dinner, and snacks - it was so long!)
30 Labarre St
Gibbon, NE 68840
(308)468-5333


Where we stayed:
Sunset Motel - $54
1631 Franklin Street
Carlyle, Illinois 62231
(618)594-4838

Transportation:
Cost to get to Carlyle - $36.78
Greyhound Buses
3231 Ramada Road ste 1
Grand Island, NE 68801
(308)382-1810


Money spent today: $96.92


Money left: $373.54