After we stood there and stared at the sky for a while, I went back to work on the tarp. I pulled in the slack, added some extra lines because it was still pretty windy, then worked on setting up the tent. At least I worked on it until I realized that there was an even bigger storm on its way. About an hour after it hit, it was becoming clear that unlike the previous storm, this rain wasn't going to let up anytime soon. Pretty soon it was dark, still raining hard, and our tent wasn't set up yet. Which is a good thing, because if it had been, it probably would have been washed into the lake.
We decided that we were pretty much out of options. I remember asking Courtney (who was in the back seat) to flip down the back seat and dig around in the trunk for my backpack. She found it, and I put on my rain suit sitting in the car. I dove out into the monsoon and yelled a lot because it was so nasty, dark, windy, rainy, stormy and cold. I ripped the stakes out of the ground, untied the main line (it's times like this that I'm really glad that I slip all my knots), rolled everything into a ball, dropped it in the trunk, then jumped back into the car and we went to find a hotel.
We got back on the highway and headed in the direction we had been going. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere, so we didn't see any 'Lodging' signs until we were outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. I forget what the first hotel we stopped at was, but for three people it would have been over $150. We said we couldn't afford that, and the guy behind the desk, who was about our age, said to try the Super 8 across the street. He said they don't have a pool or a bla bla bla like we do, but it'll be cheaper. We said thanks.
We crossed the street and checked. Sure enough, it was cheaper. $130, as opposed to $150. Fortunately the woman at the desk felt bad for us, because we were poor college students who had been planning on camping for $8. (Which we had already paid.) We had AAA, which got us a discount, then she gave us a student discount, and finally she gave us the room at the one person rate, for $60. We took it, and split it 3 ways. Outside of gas, that was the single most expensive purchase we made the entire trip.
She gave us the wrong room the first time. I went in to hang the tarp up so it could dry, and the girls went back out to the car for something. When they came back, I was still in the bathroom messing with the tarp, and they noticed that the mattresses (more than the number of beds) were sheetless, and in a pile on the floor. Then I noticed that the faucet handle for the bath tub was missing. So we went back down to bother the nice lady, and she gave us a different room.
That night we sat around and watched tv. Since the time zone was different, all the late shows were on earlier. Consequently we were able to watch some ridiculously freaking late show. All I really remember from it was that they did a thing called 'Celebrities Who Would Still Be Alive If They weren't Dead.' The first two were tv stars whose names I forget, and the third was 'Moses'. Yes, that Moses. This has been Clebrities Who Would Still Be Alive If They weren't Dead. Thank you late night television.
Side note. I did some research. Turns out it was The Late Show. I guess it wasn't as late as I remember it being. Click here to read a little more about it. (If you click it, scroll down to the bottom and read the last one. It made me laugh.)
The next morning we found the National Museum of Roller Skating.
