July 1st: Central City, NE to Kearney, NE (pronounced "carnie", like the occupation of our dear Nick Kostreski)

I woke up in all my possum glory this morning still smooshed to the road where the truck that mowed me down yesterday had left me. There were some extremely unusual passersby today – strange creatures with two wheels, bright yellow bodies, and strange hard bulbous heads. I overheard some rather bizarre things – apparently stories from the creatures’ previous day - as they spun by:

“So more of the same today, just like yesterday and the day before that – flat and filled with corn.”

“I’m so excited about the hats I bought at Target in Kearney. Did you see the whole aisle of travel-sized products? Everybody was so psyched about it. Can you believe that they had a Target?! And a mall! That town was way bigger than anything we’ve seen since Chicago.”

“Man, I’m sure glad I had all that delicious spaghetti, garlic bread, and cookies from the church last night. It’s fueling me along here. The church and the Habitat for Humanity folks were so generous. Mmmm, and that breakfast was incredible.”

"Wow, it was so nice of David and Jessalee to get me, Darrow, real presents on my HBC birthday!"

“Hey, do you think we can play soccer again today at lunch? There’s nothing better than a pick-up game. And I certainly could use some more bruises on my shins.”

“Hey Alex, how do you think your mohawk will go over with your family and your girl? You should send them a picture.”

“Did the interview with the TV station get put on the air? I really hope Rob’s mullet to make it on television.”

I’ve been mulling all this over ever since they all whizzed by and I haven’t been able to make any sense of it. The strangest thing of all was when three of these creatures approached they yelled “Possum!” and then proceeded to fly directly over me one at a time – odd, very odd. Well, I guess I have the rest of my roadkill life to mull all this over.

-Darrow Vanderburgh-Wertz