29-30 July 2004

Side Trip to O'Neill

One of my many Dittmeier cousins lives in north central Nebraska so I took a detour on my way from Red Cloud to Lincoln to visit him. Rob Scalise and his wife Deb and their two sons (Trevor and Shea) and their daughter (Rachel) live about twenty miles on the north side of O'Neill, Nebraska, not far from the border with South Dakota. It was about a 200-mile drive to reach their house.   Debbie and Rob Scalise at their home far outside of O'Neill, Nebraska, on a small, unmarked country road.        Shea (left) and Trevor (right) with their father Rob Scalise. Both boys are avid football players, Shea for O'Neill High School and Trevor for Chadron State College.  I never got a picture of the whole family with Rachel. Sorry, Rachel!   Rob and I drove to Lake Francis Case behind the Fort Randall Dam for some parts and information Rob needed to complete a rebuilding of a boat he has.     The drive to the Scalise house was straight up highway U.S. 281 from Red Cloud, a road which many Nebraskans find boring but which was exciting and interesting for me. The trip took about 4½ hours. Friday (30 July 2004)   I stayed overnight with my cousin and his family and left early in the morning for the return trip to Lincoln.  The fields of central Nebraska were beautiful in the early morning sun.   Several times I stopped to take pictures on the way back to Lincoln to drop off the rental car.  At some of the corn fields, it occurred to me that there was probably more corn in that one field before me than is grown in all of Cambodia.