Midwest rules

We've spent the last 2 days doing the midwest tour. Thursday night we arrived at the qLoBue homestead. Lee disappeared into the shed and reemerged in a 1970's Harley Davidson golf cart painted in ridiculous red and blue and covered in Cubs emblems that he personalized and gave to Dad for Father's Day. He gave Derek a tour of the property, including the future wedding site for the LoBue-Black wedding in September, while Lowrider chased them. Mom and Pops made BLTs for dinner with fresh tomatoes from the garden and then Lee again disappeared into the garage, this time reemerging with fireworks. We shot off some bombs until Derek realized Lowrider was missing. Found him curled up in a chair hiding his head. Poor buddy. We apparently discovered Superdog's kryptonite. Finally! We departed Friday morning after some nice country walks and talks.

We struggled to find interesting stops while driving across Missouri. We attempted to tour Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, MO, but Lowrider was not allowed to go spelunking.

We rolled into Lincoln, NE, home of my Aunt Janet (Mom's sister) and Uncle Dan (Dad's best friend and college roommate) on Friday evening. Wanna guess how my parents met? Uncle Dan is a soil science professor at University of Nebraska, so he gave us a grand tour of Cornhusker Country, followed by a stop at a local brewery where we taste tested beer flights. Lincoln is a beautiful little city.

Apparently it is also a natural lightning rod. A lightning bolt struck a tree in their yard that had X-mas lights in it that were grounded in the house. All the bulbs exploded, the current followed the cord, blew out their metal backdoor frame and continued into the house along a piece of metal in the wall blowing out nails and plaster as it went. It grounded out at the bottom of the stairs without starting a fire. Somebody's lucky! Long story short: don't wrap X-mas lights around a tree and plug it in the house. Plug it in outside. Now everyone has had their lesson for the day.

Uncle Dan also coined a new nickname for my boyfriend: Derelicious. I encourage everyone to use it. :)