The months following my suicide attempt I started feeling better, day by day. My Dome Brothers had kept an eye on me, and ever since March, when I came up with this crazy idea, I had something to look forward to!

The Spring semester ended and Kyle, Curt and Doug graduated. We lived in the Dome through the summer, all the way to August 31. Kyle was getting married the first weekend in September and was moving to Omaha, Nebraska.

Skratch had one more year of school left to graduate, so he was begrudgingly moving back into Centennial Towers West, a dorm on UNK. Imagine the misery that must have been. To go from living in the biggest party house in town for two years back to the same dorm where he met Kyle, Doug, and Curt as a freshman four years earlier.

As for me, I was getting more excited by the day as I was getting the heck out of Kearney and going far, far away!

May - June • Gathering Supplies

May

If I was going to backpacking through Europe, I needed to get a few things. For starters, a backpack.

I also needed a sleeping bag and a tent. I knew almost nothing about backpacks, or hiking, or camping, save from what I had learned in a few years of boy scouting.

I went to a camping outlet store in Omaha with one of my Dome Crew buddies, Kyle Gilson. With his encouragement, I purchased the largest external frame backpack they had, and the largest sleeping bag they had.

The backpack suited my needs perfectly. The sleeping bag, on the other hand was excessive and much bigger than I needed.

This was my Canon
Camera Backpack

I already had been using it for a number of years, including my first trip to Europe to visit my sister Tracy in 1990.

I also needed a guidebook. I purchased “Let’s Go - The Budget Guide to - Europe”, an 888 page encyclopedia of information about hostels and restaurants and museums, along with maps and U.S. Embassy locations and phone numbers, and began diving into the pages and imagining the places I would be seeing!

Did you know you can catch a rowboatful of Arctic cod, grill it under the midnight sun, and sleep in a cozy hostel in Stamsund, Norway, all for $12?

Did you know you can dine on pancakes and caviar and wash it down with some of the best beer in Europe in Riga, Latvia for under $3?

Or did you know you can visit the Villa in Prague where Mozart wrote Don Giovanni and then see the opera in the theater it was first performed, all for under $5?

After reading through the book, I decided to ditch my idea of sleeping in a tent in public parks, and go with staying indoors at hostels when I couldn’t stay with friends. One less thing I needed to buy and take with me, and infinitely more safe.

This guide book would become my bible, and I felt much more confident that I could make this happen. I could not wait to get out of Kearney, Nebraska!

While looking at flight options, I discovered a company called Air Hitch. These were the days before Priceline or other discount traveling services existed.

Air Hitch was a “hitchhiking” type of service. I could choose between leaving from the West coast, Midwest, or East coast. I chose Midwest, and I chose September as my departure preference.

I sent them my money, I think around $250, and waited for a response. This was a one-way service, so while I could get to Europe, I had to come up with a plan to get home.

As I was driving home to the Dome one evening in May, I was in a car accident. I was hit by a pizza delivery driver right in front of my home. The other driver and I were both okay, but my car, Zef Nendahaus, a 1984. Toyota Celica Supra, was totaled due to the frame being bent.

It was the other driver’s fault, and I received an insurance check in the settlement. I don’t recall exactly, but I think it was around $3,000.

I went out vehicle shopping, and found a 1977 Jeep CJ 5 for $500. It has a lot of character, with rust eating out holes in the floor board so I could see the street pavement below when I drove it.

More significantly, I now had $2,500 for my backpacking adventure in Europe! It was almost as if the car accident was part of the plan!

JUNE

I received a letter from Air Hitch, they had a one-way ticket for me from Chicago to Shannon, Ireland, if I wanted it. I did!

The flight left on Monday, September 6.

This worked out perfectly because Kyle was getting married on Saturday, September 4. I was a groomsman, along with Tim, Curt, and Collin.

On Monday, Curt said he could take me to Omaha, and we would stay at Kyle’s home with his mom Pam and stepdad John in my room there.

(Yes, I had a room there, from all the times I went with Kyle during college and stayed a night or a weekend. To this day, I still have a room there. Thank you Pam and John, I love you!)

Then on Monday, Curt would take me to the Omaha airport. I would fly to Chicago, and “hitch a ride” on that next airplane flight that would take me to Ireland.