We entered the pretty rolling hills and pastures of eastern Nebraska, and took local country roads to cut north from I-70 up to I-80. We drove through the small town of Madison, and happened upon the Madison County Fair and a campground, right at the time we started looking for a place to stay for the night.
After enjoying some corn dogs and watching the locals rope calves as part of the rodeo at the fair, we walked into the small downtown area for a beer at the local bar. We entered the Whiskey Run Bar, walked past the group of locals giving us the 'you're not from around here' looks, and took a distant spot at the bar. The atmosphere warmed up quickly after meeting our bartender. Young and energetic, Scott would stop by to ask us questions about our travels and tell us jokes. Later on we started talking to a few guys who just got off from work at the carnival that was part of the county fair. Munchie, the oldest of the group, gave us a dollar bill to add to the collection of money taped to the ceiling. We are now officially enshrined at the Whiskey Run Bar of Madison Nebraska after taping a dollar bill marked with our website and names.
We told Munchie, Jester, and Frodo about our plans to drive to Central and South America, and they all disapproved. Munchie told us that the US Government puts alligators in the Rio Grande to dissuade Mexicans from crossing the border into the US, and how this plan was not working as the Mexicans were just catching the alligators and eating them. After this and many other stories would not persuade us to cancel our plans, Munchie gave us the 'phone number' of his friend Butch who is a marine in South America. He told us to call him if we ever found ourselves in trouble, and he would be there within 30 minutes. The phone number looks like it may have too many numbers, so if you end up reading this post Munchie, email us the number again to make sure we have it correctly! Jester also gave us his phone number as the carnival will be in Texas when we're driving through to get to Mexico, and he guaranteed us a job if money was short. We're a little tempted. We didn't get to talk to Frodo very much as he took off with the 6 pack Munchie had just bought. All in all an unexpected and very entertaining evening.
Good Post!
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