Cousins, Runzas, and Tornados

I have at least 3 Casselman 2nd cousins in Nebraska, children of my father's 1st cousin Kyle Casselman, on his mother's side. I have been in correspondence with Dawna, who lives in Chadron, in the northwest part of the state. Don't know if we will be able to connect. Kyla lives in Scottsbluff, which we will pass through, so we hope to see her. Dawna and Kyla put me in touch with Cynthia, who lives not too far from Lincoln. We touched base by (many calls) phone Wednesday morning and managed to get together briefly before Mother and I left Lincoln. Cynthia brought along her mother, Shirley, who had attended my wedding just about 44 years ago. I had had no previous contact with Cynthia, but we had fun gossiping about the Casselmans in Canada and the "Southern Casselmans."

We didn't spend too much time together because Mother & I were trying to get out of Lincoln and as close to our next outpost before any really bad weather. As we were leaving the motel, someone told Mother about the incredible winds & thunderstorms & hail predicted. And it was pretty windy outside. We did see the beautiful art deco capitol building in Lincoln, but not any of the other great museums in town. Driving west got spookier and spookier. Several times we drove through patches of what seemed like brown fog--couldn't see very far ahead, then suddenly out of the patch. All the Nebraskans seemed to take it in stride. We stopped for gas, and I nearly got blown away when I went in to talk to the attendant. He said to worry if there were a sudden temperature drop. We bypassed two towns with good museums I had on my list and just kept going to Hastings, which is south of I-80, but on the way to Red Cloud. It was windy there too, but the worst weather was now north of us. The motel's guest directory had instructions re tornado warnings, tornado watches, etc. While we were watching bits of the French Open, we were told to watch another channel for the tornado advisory. The counties affected were north of us.

We didn't eat lunch until we got to Hastings. We found a "Runza," which seems to be a widespread Nebraska fast food chain. It could be elsewhere but it was new to us. In some towns there are more Runzas than McDonalds. Runza has a namesake signature sandwich: dough stuffed with ground beef & spices. We had the variation with cheese. Pretty tasty, but very filling. We found and closed a good Chinese restaurant for a late dinner, still full from our late Runza.