Hard night, hot day

DAY 12: Last night in Mullen, NE was sort of a tough night. Our motel was right by the railroad, and coal trains went by all through the night, blowing two blasts on the whistle as they went through town. Between that and an eccentric AC unit, I didn't get much sleep. Ellen woke up this morning with a splitting headache. So we got off to a slow start, but we did have breakfast at Big Red's across from the motel where coffee is $.50 a cup! How rare is that?

I started out driving since Ellen didn't feel quite up for that, but as time went on she felt better and by the time we had gotten to Fort Robinson, a State Historic Site in the NW corner of NE, she was feeling ok and able to drive. We had a picnic lunch at Fort Robinson, which is an interesting place and we learned it has reasonably-priced rooms in an historic building that was a barracks, now turned hotel. More interesting than a motel -  maybe we'll stay there on some future trip. From there it was just - drive through dry and barren country to Riverton, WY which is where we are tonight. It was in the 90's all day. The entire midwest and west that we have traversed is suffering from heat and drought. But as we go along I am reading aloud William James'  Varieties of Religious Experience (1907) which is a classic, a fascinating book, and amazingly modern and pertinent in its tone and outlook. I'm also reading aloud Arthur Ransome's We Didn't Mean To Go to Sea, in the Swallows and Amazons series. Fun. We are also listening to Teaching Company tapes on the topic Why Is There Evil? So far we've had lectures on the idea of evil in the Sumerian texts Enuma Elish and Epic of Gilgamesh, Greek mythology, Genesis, Job and certain Hebrew prophets. It's raised a lot of questions which we get to discuss,  and the miles flow by.