It's true cow manure does have an unusual smell.
So this morning is our last in Nebraska. I woke up early this morning to watch and take some pictures of the sunrise. I would put pictures on here but I still really haven't figured out how to do that. Anyway, Karly called me at about 6:45 I think she knew I would be up and wanted to know about drug interactions (of which there were none so you're safe and this is a good site to check them at http://www.medscape.com/druginfo/druginterchecker?src=google ). So she got my brain rolling bright and early and I walked out to watch the sunrise "with her" in the palm of my hand.
Now for a little step back in time. Last night was confusing. We had someone come into class telling us that a trip to Oak where there's a neat restaurant/pub. Well there was a group of us who were interested in that but some wanted to stay and eat tacos which were planned by room 4 for the night. So after a while I come to hear that everyone is going to stay for dinner. That upset me a little because I was looking forward to going somewhere. Then a couple of minutes later Dr. O'Connor comes back into the room and says well I guess we're going to Hastings for dinner. So I quickly jumped on that bandwagon and ended up having ribs soup... at a place called Murphy's.
When we got home that night I was stuffed beyond belief and in the mood to call Karly. So I decided to take a walk and call. That's when I found out she needed a little more time to clean the house for my parents arrival the next day. I hung up but wasn't done walking. I thought I would walk around the perimeter of the facility we were staying in. As I was walking on the oppposite side of the property from our apartments I notices a set of tire tracks heading off northeast. My curiosity was peaked and I followed the tracks to a gate. Well that meant I needed to continue over the fence into the pasture. As I was walking away from the light of the facility I noticed it didn't seem to be getting any darker. I looked up and the moon was bright and illuminating my pathway. I followed the cattle tracks to the feeder in the pasture and then off into the distance. As it was approaching cheap cell phone time I realized that I was getting cold and it was quite a ways back to the warmth of the buildings and I wanted to talk to the one I love before returning. So I looked around only to realize that there was no wood, there were no trees and nothing to burn but dried grass and that didn't seem very safe to me so as I stood there I kicked a cow pie. It went thump and broke free from the ground. It was mostly dried out and a lightbulb went off in my head. I remembered what they did in the old west and still do in Mongolia. Cow pies burn very nicely. So I made a little ring of more moist cow pies and gathered some small hunks of cow chips. Then I filled the ring with loose dried grass and lit it on fire. It created a small glow that was very warm but going to die quickly so I added a couple of the dried cow chips and they almost immediately started on fire. They lit somewhat like charcoal in how they got really hot to the point of glowing red but didn't let off much flame. I created a very warm pile of embers to sit by and talk to my love Karly by the campfire. I felt like a true Nebraskan for a moment. But then I returned to the confines of our facility and slept in a good old fashioned bed. I think it would have been nice to find a clearing of grass and start a small fire to keep warm by and go to sleep out there in the open plain with the stars and moon overhead.