Deb Hunke | Wander Junkie

This was a perfect trip…lovely weather, worthy friends and a bit of nirvana.

I had an opportunity to visit my hometown of Cozad, Nebraska and I took it…or I should say my lovely wife Linna gave me her blessing to fly back home for 4 days to see friends and classmates. I also had a motive, my good friend and classmate Jerry Story was coming back from Finland with his family and we haven’t seen each other for a couple of years or so. Plus my other good friends and classmates Brad Wilcher and Nick Morse from Lincoln, Nebraska were coming back too. My ex-brother-in-law Brad Stallbaumer opened up his 6 bedroom house to Wilcher and I and we used it for home base the whole weekend.

First night back we all met up at the local Elks club for food and beverage, we had other 1979 classmates that showed up too; Andy Pflaster, Todd Morris, Deb Hunke and Kelly Worrell. Of course we closed down the Elks and a few of us walked over to Big E’s…the only bar left in my small town of 3,500 people. Even though I finally got to bed in the wee hours, I answered the bell for breakfast at the Green Apple restaurant in Cozad…of course my classmate Todd Morris had to call me out of bed though.

Breakfast was followed by a fishing trip with a long time buddy John Dorsey out to Johnson Lake about 15 miles from Cozad. We usually limit out on decent size Walleye, but our fishing rods were only bringing in small rubbish fish. Not to waste any precious time during this well-deserved hometown visit our group took off to Eustis, Nebraska for Wurst Tag for the evening; this is more or less one big ass party that is similar to Oktoberfest. This was actually a fabulous time to meet up with many old friends to share stories. One major gripe I have is the light beer they were serving during a major German type festival…your only choices were Coors Light, Bud Light and Busch Light! Who in their right mind would serve such crap beer for a major German festival?

My last day was another Green Apple breakfast followed by some target shooting with the Story family. I brought back my 9mm and .45 Kimber 1911 style guns from Seattle and we shot 200 rounds of ammo. This was the first time shooting for Erika and Patrick Story and I know they appreciated it.

: My flight back to Seattle took us very close to famous Mt. Rainier

: Patrick Story loving the .45 Kimber

: The North Platte river at flood stage. This was a normal occurrence when I was a kid growing up in Cozad

: It’s one thing that I do miss is the Midwest storms

: My niece Zoey was in Cozad too, so I had a chance to stop by and say hi.

: My good friend John Dorsey in front of his longtime friend…his boat.

: Todd Morris, Andy Plaster, Nick Morse, Brad Wilcher, Jerry Story, Deb Hunke, Rick Freeman and Kelly Worrell.

: Cozad has more cattle than people. This feedlot can hold 20,000 cows.

: Erika handle the 9mm Kimber with ease

: We call this Walleye a cigar because it’s so damn small.

: The iconic grain bins in Cozad

: We had a great time at the Eustis Wurst Tag event.

I had two main reasons for this trip, to see my sister Nova in Nebraska and to summit Mt. Elbert on my 52nd birthday in Colorado. I flew to Omaha via a Minneapolis connection by myself; Linna would join me later in the week in Denver. It was a smooth and sunny flight over to Minneapolis; the beautiful Cascades still had a lot of snow on top.

After flying into Omaha, I grabbed a rental car and drove over to my sister Alicia’s house in La Vista, Nebraska for a long overdue visit with her and her children Kason and Jolie. Later in the day I drove over to Lincoln to meet up with Brad Wilcher an old classmate of mine from high school. I lived with Brad and his family for a small stint my senior year in Cozad and we have maintained a worthy correspondence ever since. We ended up having a few beers at a local hot spot talking about old times, people and sharing a few laughs.

The next day was a leisurely drive to Kearney, Nebraska to meet up with my sister Nova where she was having some medical testing done. She was diagnosed with cancer about 1 1/2 years ago; she looked great for what she has endured. After her testing we met at the Alley Rose, about the only nice restaurant in this small college town of 30,000 people. I didn’t have any plans after dinner so I decided to call John Dorsey on a whim who lives in my hometown of Cozad. After a quick 45 minute drive I was sitting in John’s backyard enjoying a refreshing cold beverage with him and his son Mike Dorsey. Mike is a retired Marine and is living out to Johnson Lake for a few months before heading onto Alaska where he will guide big game hunts and fishing trips. John was nice enough to offer up a guest bedroom and a delicious brunch the next day. Before driving out to Johnson Lake for a swim I stopped by to chat with Deb Hunke, another old classmate of mine.

Later in the evening I met up with my ex-brother-n-law Brad Stallbaumer and his wife Gina Krysl Clyde at the local Elks Club. During dinner a woman came over to grab a spare chair from our table and to my surprise it was another classmate of mine Renee Rowe, it seems I run into her on every Cozad trip I make. After dinner we cruised around Cozad and to check out Bradâ€™s house where he is adding another 2,200 square feet.

I left Cozad around 9:30 p.m. to head toward Denver; I thought I would stay at the Hampton Inn in North Platte about a 45 minute drive west. They were full, no biggie I said to myself…I will drive to the next town toward Denver. Well, the next town and the next town were all full too. I finally pulled over in a hotel parking lot and crawled in back of my rented Jeep and crashed about 1:30 a.m. After sleeping for about 6 hours I woke up in my same clothes I had on the day before and went into the Hampton Inn and had breakfast. I picked up my wife Linna at the Denver airport at 3:00 p.m. and headed for Mt. Elbert, my birthday hike.