6.01.2010

      I woke up bright and early at 7 am and began getting ready for my first day of work. Allison and I headed to the Education Center around 8 am and met Tina, who was in charge of us for the day. She told us that we would be joining a group of classes from Lincoln who were coming in that day. They were 4^th graders.

      We read through some training booklets while sitting in this secluded, frigid room and after I had finished reading, Allison was not done with hers so I put my head down on the table. The next thing I know, Tina opens the door to the room, I pop my head up from my nap, and she just laughs at me. We followed her to the lecture room because since it rained in the morning (for 2 minutes if not less), all the activities that were planned for the children had to be moved inside.

      In the morning I had begun the day wearing a sweatshirt because it was pretty cold outside. After it rained briefly, the humidity rose and it got pretty muggy. Since it rained, one of the park rangers presented a program called “Skins and Skulls”, of which we got to sit in on. Although Allison nodded her head trying to stay awake, I was really interested in the program. She showed pelts of the beaver, squirrel, rabbit, deer, and the “kaye-oht”. They do not say “kaye-ohtee” in Nebraska. It is pronounced “kaye-oht”. The skulls were pretty interesting as well. She would ask the children if the animal was predator or pray, and ask them why. The predator has sharp, pointed teeth and his eyes are in the front of his head. The prey has teeth that are not sharp and their eyes are on the sides of their head. The kids had a good time.

      After the presentation it was back to the house for a quick lunch. After lunch, we headed to the prairie trail which leads to the Heritage Center. After a good, sweaty 20 minute walk, we had finally caught up to a group of kids who were being taught how to whistle by holding a piece of grass up to their mouths and blowing on it. One lady did it so well that it sounded like an elephant was behind us!

      Once we made it to the Heritage Center, we sat down and watched a movie about the Homestead Act and the people who were descendents of homesteaders. Although the video was quite interesting, I could not help but nod off a few times. Allison and I could not figure out why we were so tired when both of us got adequate sleep the previous night. We think it may have been the awful humidity or allergies, or a combination of the two.

After the video, we went downstairs to the museum part of the Center and got to listen to another park ranger host a scavenger hunt for the kids. They seemed to be having a good time, and Allison got to learn what a windmill is used for. I told her the only reason I knew what they did was because my grandparents in Lampasas use windmills to draw water for tanks to water their cattle.

      After we walked back through the prairie back to the Education Center, it was time for Allison and I to go to the sheriff’s office to be fingerprinted. We went inside, and Allison went first. The lady was giving her a hard time saying that she was “difficult to print”, because her fingers were so stiff. When it came to my turn, I asked if I was better and she said “Yes, yours was a breeze.” It was pretty funny.

      Tina then gave us a brief tour of the town and gave us some information on certain restaurants. We would ask her which places were worth going to, and she was never hesitant to give her honest opinion.

      We got back to the house and I had a raging headache, so I downed some Tylenol and got into bed. By then, Chelsi had returned from her adventure in Lincoln at the Pioneer’s Park. I asked her to wake me up in an hour so we could go get dinner. When she woke me up, we decided to try out a Chinese food place that Allison and I had seen while on the tour with Tina.

      We walked in and ordered, and the food was absolutely fantastic! Chelsi had Hunan beef, Allison had General Tso’s chicken, and I had the sesame chicken with steamed rice. It was SO good! Oh, not to mention the egg drop soup I was given before my meal had pieces of delicious corn in it… gotta love the Cornhuskers!

      We had been on a tornado warning for the majority of the evening, and when we headed home from the restaurant the wind had picked up to a 60 mph speed and the sky was darkening at an alarming rate. The closer we got to our house, the darker and windier it became. We had planned to run inside, grab our cameras, and race to the Heritage Center before it began raining. Instead we decided to walk around the fence and take some quick pictures near the road. By the time we had grabbed our cameras, it was already raining fiercely right across the road from us, and you could see it in the empty field. We ran, tried to snap a few, and then when it began to lightly rain on us (and our cameras), we raced back to the house. Luckily we got back inside before the rain began flooding down.

We opened all the blinds and pulled up chairs to the back window to watch the lightning.        
     The wind was howling, and then all of a sudden… is that hail? Yes, it certainly was. Quarter-sized hail pummeled our cars, and I was worried. It stopped after about 10 minutes.

All of a sudden, I hear Chelsi say “Come here!” so I walked back to the window we were watching the lightning from. Underneath an old rusted part of a wagon sat a big, fat brown bunny rabbit, wet from the rain and trying to guard from the hail. We tried to get pictures of him but it was nearly impossible. Instead, Chelsi tossed some strawberries outside that he will hopefully be able to munch on once the rain stops.

      After the wind and rain calmed down, we all watched the sky on one side of the house turn more yellow by the minute as the sky on the opposite end turned darker and darker gray. I love the fact that all three of us have a passion for photography and weather. Even though Allison was freaking out at the Chinese restaurant (at one point she even slid underneath the table), I think we can safely say that we highly enjoyed the beauty of the storm.

Highlight of the day: Tina, Allison’s boss, once worked for the Dallas Stars hockey team.

The pictures below are of the big brown rabbit and the hail we got. Can you see the rabbit? He's right underneath the middle of the wheel.