Sunday morning it was clear and way below freezing. I had breakfast at the motel and hit the road. It was time for many people to drive home from the holiday weekend. The good news was that I had already gone through all the major cities farther east. Heavier traffic in Iowa and Nebraska is still pretty light. On my first gas stop I carefully checked the oil and anti-freeze levels. The gauge seemed high but the fluid levels all checked out. I had driven 1400 miles and was down less than half a quart of oil. Not bad for over 100,000 miles on the Subaru.

     It was still late morning as I drove through Omaha. This would be the last good sized city I would go through before Seattle. I was amazed at one point when several lanes merged on in one place and several more soon after. Suddenly there were about 7 lanes. I've been in much larger cities with much less auto capacity. Next came Lincoln. It would have been fun to stop but I was making this a straight through drive. It was still below freezing but the sun was out. Driving conditions were very good. Beyond Grand Island I picked up the Platte River and followed it most of the way across Nebraska. The speed limit had been 65 or 70 mph until Nebraska when it went up to 75. I had been driving about 5 mph over the limit and now I was cruising at 80 to 85. The miles really flew by at that speed. I was on track to reach Laramie by early evening.

     I stopped for lunch in Ogallala only 126 miles from the Wyoming border. Soon after getting back on the road the highway split. I-76 angled southwest towards Denver and I-80 continued west. Omaha, on the eastern border is at 1040 feet. Ogallala was at 3223 feet. After the highways split the elevation gain became more pronounced. I rocketed down the highway at 80+ mph with Wyoming only an hour away. That's when the fun began. I noticed a flashing on the dashboard. The "Check Engine" light came on and was flashing. I quickly scanned the map for the nearest town. This is about as unpopulated a stretch of interstate as you will find. Sidney was still about 10 miles away. That would only be 8 minutes but I didn't want to harm the car. By then I realized that the temperature gauge was now all the way to the maximum level. An exit for "Sunol" was coming up and I pulled onto the off ramp. At the end of it there was no Sunol. There was just bare land for as far as I could see. I turned off the car to let it cool down. I had a cell phone along but this section of Interstate highway did not have coverage. I was now out of sight of the highway in the middle of nowhere and it was 30 degrees and cooling once again. A little later I tried the car again and it would not start. This was getting a little serious. I walked back to the highway and within 10 minutes a state patrol car saw me and stopped. It was only the second police car I had seen all day. My timing couldn't have been better. The officer called for a tow truck and soon was back on his way. The tow truck arrived within 30 minutes. It turned out that there was a repair shop only 9 miles down the road at the exit for Sidney. The town itself was another 3 or 4 miles north. The old highway went through town but the newer interstate avoids all the towns.

     The tow truck driver said that the shop was first rate and that I was lucky to break down near such a good one. It was Sunday afternoon so the shop was closed. We dropped the car in the lot and he drove me across the interchange to where the motels were. I chose the Motel 6 and checked in. It looked like my 5 day trip home was going to be at least a little longer.