R and J in the USA

As we were leaving the town of Scottsbluff after getting our flat tire taken care of, we needed to make a quick grocery stop. Ryan found a little natural foods store and Julie was excited to check out what that would be in rural Nebraska.

When we walked into Nutter Natural Foods, we were greeted with a gleeful smile and a “Welcome to Scottsbluff!”

Julie was taken aback by the attentive and insightful welcome to the area. How did he know? She thought as she confusedly responded, “Thank you.”

No sooner did the “Thank you.” escape her lips than she realizedc, it wasn’t for her.

The gentleman behind the counter smiled and explained that the customer that had been exiting as we had been entering was a traveling nurse and that had just arrived for a 5 month stay in Scottsbluff. That is who he was welcoming. But, being the kind of guy Bill was, he doubled down on the welcome for us and we got to chatting. He asked us our story and was happy as could be to hear that we were traveling all 50 states and eager to give us as many tidbits and travel tips about Nebraska’s panhandle.

”I’ll talk your ear off.” He jovially threatened. He did, and we loved it.

He told us that, as far as he knew, the folks in eastern Nebraska don’t think much about folks up there in the panhandle and don’t care much for them either. 

“There was talk at some point about ceding the panhandle off Nebraska and handing it over to Wyoming.”

Then he continued that his friend in Cheyenne had said, “What makes you think we want you?” He said with a jovial chuckle.

We told him about our Nebraska journeys so far, including our pleasant surprise stumbling upon the Sandhills. He excitedly informed us about a yearly race in the Sandhills. We were thinking road race? Bike race? Turns out it is a car race – The Sandhills Open Road Challenge – a 55-mile rally style open road race through the scenic Nebraska Sandhills. This is the kind of thing that we otherwise wouldn’t learn about.

He asked us if we’d driven through the arch.

”In St. Louis?” Julie asked.

”Not that one, much smaller, but still neat.” 

We were confused because it sounded like if you were driving to the area from Omaha, which we did, we should have passed it. Turned out our stay at Fort Kearny State Park had us get off at the exit just before it and get back on the highway the next exit, skipping over the 1 miles stretch of road that happened to have the arch on it. Oh well. So, no, we didn’t see it. 

We were loving Bill’s enthusiasm for our trip and for Nebraska. He was a Nebraska transplant, having been from Cheyenne, WY originally and moving here 29 years prior.

We took a break from chatting to do some shopping in this small Nebraska natural foods store that didn’t have much, but had a few neat things, including a new brand of gluten free bagels that Julie had never tried before and tossed in the basket.

During our shopping, we heard Bill in conversation with the next fellow at the register. He was a young man that was talking to Bill about his choice to move to Utah. Bill inquired why the move and the young man expressed a desire for a change of scenery. 

Seemed to be that, on this particular day, Bill was a way station for giving out the “welcomes“ and ”so longs”.

When we returned to check out, Bill was back to “talking our ear off” and we enjoyed every bit of it. 

Before long, he was telling us how he used to be a carpenter and had never intended to be taking care of a natural foods store. We took the bait and inquired further. It turns out the store had been his wife’s dream that they had brought to fruition. Sadly, 14 years ago, she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and tragically left this world not long after. Bill had taken over working at the store and had stuck with it for the 14 years since. We were both touched by Bill’s commitment to keeping her dream alive. 

Bill then got telling us all about his grown children, effusively singing the praises of them and their accomplishments, his daughter having just gotten a degree in clinical psychology and his son, a genius that had been scouted by all the top schools and had opted to study business finance at the University of Chicago. He was then hand-picked by Jeff Bezos to handle the finances end of his Blue Origins space travel ventures. He carried on about his children and their accomplishments with a beaming joy. This was one proud papa. 

“Not too bad for losing their mom just out of high school.” 

We had a sense of what kind of guy Bill was – the kind that poured his heart and soul into his family. We hadn’t known him but for 15 minutes and he had already poured quite a bit into helping us along our way too.

Ryan asked him to fill up a big of tea from his stock behind the counter. Bill filled up the tea bag and put it on the scale and then calculated the total. 

“$67.50“, Bill said.

”What?!” Ryan asked with major sticker shock. 

“That’s the total.”

”Oh,” Ryan said, feeling a little bad for reacting so openly to what he had thought was the price of the tea alone. $67 for the whole lot was a lot more reasonable. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you or your store.”

Bill was completely unaffected and as jovial as ever.

’Hey, have you tried those Aloha bars?” Bill said, pointing to a box of snack bars.

”No.” we said.

”Well, I see you like the macro bars. I think you’ll like them. They are really good.”

We had already checked out, but Julie figured, hey, that’s the whole point of this trip, trying new things.

Julie grabbed a few bars and threw the up on the counter for another transaction.

”That’s okay. They’re on me.” Bill said.

”Oh gosh! I can’t. Let me pay you.” Julie insisted.

”No, please.” He counter-insisted.

”Wow. Thank you!” Julie said.

”Is this Nebraska hospitality?” She exclaimed.

Bill responded, “I don’t know about the rest of them, but it’s my version.”

“Well, we are lucky for it.”

“I just want you to have a positive experience here in Nebraska.”

Well, Bill, you certainly made sure of that!