days 10 & 11 part 2

his job as a youth minister and the state of kids today. The next morning I was slamming away the miles leaving Grand Island when Jim showed up having driven all the way from Omaha. Just the fact that it took him 2 & a half hours to get to me via interstate make me feel like I had made some progress since running from Omaha 12 days earlier. The miles continued to fly by as we tweeted (really) to the blackbirds and waved to passing trains to get a toot-toot every time from conductors. By 4:30 I was at my destination and picked up by Katie, my host. She took me and a friend's dog out to the flooded Platte River to go swimming. After trudging through a marshy trail, we got to the bank when the dog leapt into the water, as usual. But this time the current was swift and Katie yelled, "Save the dog!" She jumped in and was being swept away as well but she caught up to the dog and pushed her to the bank where I was waiting to help. Later we fought swarms of mosquitos to gather some firewood...