Seward, Nebraska (La Ruche B&B)

[This is Part 4 of our September 2017 BORN TO THE STARS USA TOUR blog]

September 18, 2017

Woke up at 8:50am in Sterling, Colorado, and ran downstairs to bring the free hot breakfast to our room (5 mins before they stopped serving breakfast, hence the running). We rarely stay in chain hotels, but this Holiday Inn Express was the best place for miles and miles around. I always research and look for best reviews, and this place had excellent Google and Expedia customer ratings. Nick was on conference calls all morning, and we ate our breakfast as we worked. The hotel let us check out at 1pm (so nice of them!), I even had time for a mini-workout in the hotel gym after catching up on emails and a million other things, including sending email reminders to our Nebraska, Wisconsin & IL fans about the upcoming shows.

1pm - 9pm: drove 350 miles to Seward, Nebraska

We crossed into the Central Time zone and lost an hour. For lunch, I was really hoping to find a good place, but every cafe/restaurant I found on Google Maps was either permanently closed or was a chain (like Subway or McD. No, thanks!). 

But then I saw a one of a kind local place with excellent Google reviews. Open Range Grill in Ogallala, NE.The beef they used in cheeseburgers was all natural and locally sourced, and it was delicious! Nick & I split a cheeseburger (I had 1/3, if you want to get all technical) and I added a side salad. Everything was great! Even their ketchup didn't have high fructose corn syrup! We'll definitely be back when on I-80!


After a long tiring day of driving we arrived to Seward, a small university town half an hour outside of Lincoln. We were hoping to stay 2 nights at La Ruche B&B until our concert in Lincoln. Beth Hart had 2 shows with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, so we had a few nights in between shows. La Ruche owner had the whole house booked up and only the first night was available. But we were the only ones in the house for the night and Bonnie (the awesome owner) gave us the Master suite! Ooo-lala!!!

Laruche B&B was built in 1904 as a family home, then used as a dorm for students in the 50s and bought & remodeled by Bonnie in the 2000s. What a spectacular place. 
I had to change out of my travel tshirt/leggings/tennis shoes into something nicer because this staircase deserved nothing less! However, I still didn't have any makeup on, so please don't judge too harshly :)

La Ruche means beehive in French. Bonnie had plenty of adorable bee-themed decorations around, and I loved every one of them (but didn't take any photos of the bee pillows). 

Seward is a cute little town. But by the time we got there all but one restaurant was closed. It was a Mexican place called La Carreta and it was ok, but not near as great as Mexican places we have in California (we are so spoiled by amazing Mexican food!). After a quick dinner, we went to the only place open late (Wal-Mart. Again, pretty please don't judge too harshly) and bought some blueberries, water for the road and a bottle of Estancia Pinot Noir (Wal-Mart"s finest). We had a lot of work to catch up on, so we sat from 10pm-1am at a beautiful table in our suite under a turret, drank wine and worked (including doing some travel blog writing for me). Here is the turret:We got up at 9 am and worked til 2:45pm (huge thanks to Bonnie for letting us check out so late!!). She cooked us a yummy breakfast (probably enough for 4!) and we had it in our room.

We ate all of this food but didn't have time for workout. It's a miracle we didn't any weight on this tour!Nick was on conference calls all morning. Because we were checking out so late (so nice of Bonnie!), she left to run errands but her cute rescue dog Ozzy stayed in the house. He is a sweet small dog but I'm allergic to dogs (and cats). Ozzy really wanted to hang out in our suite and kept barking, loudly clawing at the door (trying to get in) and then (even more loudly) whining outside of our suite door. For a small dog he was very loud. He sounded like a werewolf/hound from hell trying to break in. We were laughing hysterically, and Nick had to mute his mic a few times so no barking or laughing was heard by his conference call party:)

I had to contact my artist rep (awesome guy named Byron) at Sennheiser because my in-ear monitor transmitter's antenna had just broken. I had to arrange the shipping of the antenna to the next hotel. Just for the fun of it (super duper fun, right? :)), here is the pic below. The antenna should be standing up right like a good sport, but it just lays flat as it's cracked:

As we were pulling out of the LaRuche B&B driveway, I took this photo, isn't the house just lovely?

It was hot and humid, and we didn't feel like getting too sweaty. We only briefly walked around Seward before heading out. This is the historic downtown, just a few blocks away from the B&B:
We waved goodbye to the lovely town of Seward to go to our next stop.

To be continued :)

P.S. Do you like staying at B&Bs? Or do you prefer hotels? Just curious. As you probably noticed, I love all unique/boutique/one-of-a-kind lodgings.