Road trip shopping

 I've been whining lately about never "going anywhere" interesting.  Or actually about never going anywhere period, unless it's to some sport event.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy college basketball and do enjoy going to watch my young grandchildren participate in concerts or sports.  And I do appreciate the fact that there are many people out there who are even more cooped up since Covid.  But it would be fun to do something totally different once in awhile, right?

Thursday was finally my opportunity!  We were heading to Omaha for a college basketball doubleheader and visiting a niece and husband. The arena there requires masks so we felt pretty safe, particularly since there is never a big crowd there.  My husband promised we would leave early enough for me to stop in a couple of quilt shops on the way - one in Sioux City and one in Omaha.  Normally it takes us just under 4 hours to get to Omaha.

In reality, he got busy with a work project that he wanted to send out to his "guys" to review, and we left a lot later than planned.  I did get to spend about 20 minutes at the Heart & Hand Quilt Shop in Sioux City.  I picked up a cute little potholder kit with coffee fabrics.  

The sewing print is for cutting 6" friendship squares for my guild friends.  And I had to pick up a couple of seasonal fat quarters.  

Replenishing some of my reds was one of the things I planned for my shop hopping, and I did pick up some red fat quarters.  I guess not having much time was probably good for my budget.

We got to Omaha and met my niece and her husband at the arena - where we watched 2 Jackrabbit wins on Thursday evening.  Our visits to Omaha are always enjoyable, but we seem to always bring bad weather. Last year we went down for the same games and ended up staying 3 nights due to the blizzard that followed us.

This year the winter storms were supposed to move in early Friday morning all up and down that - I-29 corridor.  So we decided to leave for home earlier than planned - before Omaha quilt shops would have opened up.  And we headed west instead of straight north to try to avoid the worst of the storm.  

I was hoping to stop at the shop in Norfolk, Nebraska as we passed through.  But knowing we were about to run into icy roads and poor visibility, I didn't even mention it.  The last 90 miles or so looked like this, with a mix of freezing rain and snow.  Taking that western route home is slower but was a good decision as the interstate had lots of icy areas all day.  And shortly after we got home things got much worse here with more snow and wind, on top of ice. Good to be home safe and sound.