A State at a Time: Nebraska - Days 11 - 14 - in Grand Island, both town and campground

Grand Island KOA, Doniphan

Tuesday, 11 through Friday, 14 October 2022

I'd made appointments in advance for me to get a medical checkup and for Lily (claws clipped) and Dext (brief checkup) at a vet. But instead of having several days to sit and catch up on my writing, I ended up running into town all 4 days for a second vet visit and to get new tires. Here's how and why it all happened.

Tuesday

I had an early appointment at a clinic because of needing to get blood work done for a new prescription for my blood pressure meds. I was trying to find a space I could park in at the clinic when I noticed a woman alone. She limped to the rear of her SUV using a cane, opened the rear hatch and used a remote control to lower a wheelchair from the back of the SUV onto the ground, climbed into the wheelchair and used the control to retract the chair lift, closed the rear of the SUV with a key fob, and electrically wheeled herself off to the clinic. I'm sure life would be much easier for her if she had someone to help her, but I was really impressed with the accommodations she'd made to allow herself independence.

I saw the doctor, who checked me over and listened to my situation, ordered the blood test, which I took, and called in the new prescription to the CVS. Nice folks.

David and Anna had sent me my mail, including my absentee ballot, which I'd spent hours on yesterday. Texas being so weird about absentee ballots (they have to be perfect or they're probably fake and shouldn't be counted, you know), I went next to the post office and got them to postmark it specially before sending it off.

I stopped at a grocery store and then went on to a dog park I'd found online. It was called Dog Island and it actually was a peninsula (almost an island) in a small lake. The whole dog park was sandy beach and sand covered with the plants that can grow in sand. We came around a corner and saw a woman with 2 pit bulls ahead. Dext pranced up toward one that looked interested and the woman saw us and quick snapped a leash on that dog and turned both dogs around and rapidly walked in the opposite direction, looking back at us until we were out of sight. Everybody knows their dogs and I supposed her dogs had been in fights before. But it seemed a shame they couldn't try to play together.

Wednesday

When Dext and I were on our 2nd walk this morning, we saw a tiny kitten huddled in the middle of the campground road. Because I had Dext with me, I didn't try to check on it, but when we were leaving the campground a little afterwards, the kitten was still there. I got out of the RV to check on it and it ran into a small drainage pipe. Two other women nearby tried to coax it out, and I told them if they caught it I'd be willing to try to find it a home (thinking Animal Shelter, of course).

I'd noticed this morning that the tread on 2 of my rear tires was a lot lower than it should be (and winter's coming on), so I first stopped off at Graham Tire Co. They said their first available slot was next week, but then they found a spot on Friday's calendar and I grabbed it.

Across the street I saw a fabric shop called "Material Girl," which I thought was clever.

I ran a couple more errands and then stopped at another park in town that ran along a large pond, complete with water fountains and resident geese population. And from there we went to the vet clinic.

Lily got her claws clipped and flea medicine applied (and convinced the staff that I wasn't kidding about not being able to do it myself). And the vet took a look at a place on Dext's back that's been worrying me. A couple of months ago it looked like a scrape or something, but I figured it should have healed long ago, but there was something still there. Dext didn't want me to look at it, and anyway by then I wanted a professional to check on it. It turned out what was there was a scab from the healed sore that just hadn't gotten around to falling off. Very reassuring.

I saw a Nebraska license plate that said SEEUSGO.

Back at the campground, I got a knock on the door and it was the guy from the KOA office with a small animal carrier and a little kitten in it. He said the women had caught it and said I'd agreed to take it, while donating the carrier to the cause. I'd heard at the vet's office earlier that the town was floating in kittens right now, lots more than the shelter could give away. This little guy obviously had something wrong with one of its eyes, and I knew there was no chance of finding it a home if there were dozens of others to choose from. Clearly this town needs a spay/neuter clinic.

Thursday

Having weathered the night, I called around town in a panic trying to find a vet that would take us on such short notice. I tried to talk the local humane society into having their vet check this kitty out, trying to ease the financial burden on me. They said their vet couldn't treat animals that weren't in the shelter. I pointed out that I was trying to keep it from becoming a shelter animal, and she appreciated that but said this was their policy.

So after several more phone calls I found somebody willing to squeeze us in. But when Dext and I were walking around the campground just before leaving, Dext found another kitten huddled against a 4x4 piece of wood, trying to shelter from the wind. It looked just like the one I already had except it was healthy, and I figured it was from the same litter. I wasn't even sure I'd keep the first one, let alone a 2nd one, but I couldn't just leave it out in the really cold wind.

I put the 2nd one in the carrier with the 1st and they immediately snuggled together, pretty clearly from the same litter. For all I know they were the litter. Here's a photo.

It's hard to tell but the head on the left belongs to the body on the right
and the head on the right belongs to the body on the left. One kitty
has its head draped over the neck of the other.

And here are the reactions from the current residents.

Lily retreated to the upper bunk, after
hissing her displeasure at the intrusion.

Dext thought they were toys
and kept poking his nose at
them to get them to play.

The vet said kitty #1 weighed .8 pound and had an infected eye and a respiratory infection. Kitty #2 weighed 1 pound and was apparently healthy, though was likely infected with that respiratory thing. They were only a month old. The vet gave me liquid for twice daily doses for the respiratory infection and eye drops for the eye infection and a gel as a food supplement and cans and a bag of kitty food. It cost a lot more money than I wanted to afford, but I couldn't just abandon them, could I?

Luckily I had large absorbent pads we'd used during Momma's last year or so to cover chairs and her bed, and I put those in the bottom of the carrier (you can see a bit of it in that photo with Dext), so I could confine them during the night and let Lily have the run of the cabin again.

Friday

On the way to my tire appointment, I saw a sign saying US-34 is designated the Henry Fonda Memorial Highway. Grand Island was his childhood home, which I didn't know. The house is now part of a pioneer museum in town.

A sandwich shop had a sign saying, "Our customers say we have the best fries." Across the street a Godfather's Pizza sign says, "Our customers say we have the best pizza."

At the Graham Tire shop, they sadly informed me that the tires they'd held for me weren't in fact being held, so they were going to have to upgrade me to better tires for the same price. I told them I thought it was a discount on account of my last name. They just installed them where the old ones had been - on the right rear axle. I think later on when I've got more time I should have them moved to the front axle and have the others moved around, but I don't want to take the time right now.

A couple of days ago I stopped at a gas station because they had posted a sign for regular gas at $3.42/gallon, which was a good price compared to the rest of the town's stations that posted $3.65 or so. But at the pump, it said the $3.42 was for "regular" 87 octane, while "unleaded" 87 octane was $3.95. It looked like a bait & switch to me, I wasn't sure what the difference was, so I didn't buy any gas.

Today at a different gas station, I found an array of prices and types of gas and learned that stations charge based on the amount of ethanol in the gas. Less ethanol, higher price for gas. I don't know what that first station was selling, but today's station was selling unleaded 87 octane (no ethanol) for 20¢ more than unleaded 88 octane (ethanol). They were charging $3.45 for it, which I thought was a good deal.

That same station was the only place in town I could find that would sell me propane for my RV. There are quite a few places in almost every town that will trade small filled propane tanks for empty ones, but I don't use those. Oddly, the KOA here doesn't sell propane, one of the few that doesn't. Which is how I came to be at this station that was primarily a truck stop, though patronized by many local people on account of the gas prices, I think.

The guy who pumped my propane greeted me with "Howdy," so I figured he was from Texas. Which he was. But he said he's been up here for 30+ years and when he goes back to visit thinks it's too hot. Which it is, of course. Not that Nebraska's weather is anything to brag about.

I've been passing a large factory labeled "Case Ag" with about 50 or more pieces of brand new farm equipment parked around the outside. And it is a manufacturing plant, recognized a few years ago as the "Large Manufacturer of the Year" by the state Chamber of Commerce. The plant produces harvesters and combines and like that.

Back at the campground, I'd noticed a large field of dead corn plants across the road, some of which had been harvested and others that hadn't. I asked the guy in the KOA office if he happened to know why they did this, and he did. He said farmers plant more than one kind of corn in one field, sometimes alternating the rows the types are in. Field corn is what they feed cows and it's best harvested very dry. So farmers leave the plants standing in the fields sometimes until just before the first frost. But sweet corn is for people and we don't want it dry, so it's harvested much earlier. I was so glad I'd asked him, and so glad he knew the answer. That explains all those fields of dead corn I've been seeing.

And to round this out, here are a few more photos of kitties.