Go East, Young Man

A week and a half ago, I took a long road trip with my wife out to Indiana.  I got to see all of my siblings in a span of three days.  I went further away from home that I had ever been.  Err--I guess that's not true.  Here is a recap:

Day One

Vancouver, WA to Eagle, ID.
400ish miles, 6 and a half hours.

This is a trek I have been on often.  Not much to say.  I tried not to notice how beautiful it was.  We stopped in Arlington, as is mandatory.  Lunchables.  Gazebo.  Wasps.  I learned on NPR the other day that the bee-like looking things that bother you when you picnic are not bees.  Bees wouldn't do that.  They are probably wasps.  I hadn't had Lunchables for a long time, but I guess nothing really stops me from picking them up at the store.

We met up with Adam at Kyler's football practice.  Then we had pizza.  Then we left the next morning.

Day Two

 

Eagle, ID to Salt Lake City, UT
350ish miles, 5 and a half hours.

More of Idaho, and again, already-trodden land.  Much as Alyssa was dreading heading into Utah, we had to do it.  We did avoid Provo though.  We stayed in a swanky Bed-and-Breakfast in downtown SLC that Alyssa's aunt put up for us.  We went to the temple, LIVE!  Then we saw Jessica (it was not accidental).  We ate the Lion House.  I had pot roast.  Yummers.  Then we played pool.  

Day Three

 

Salt Lake City, UT to Omaha, NE

930ish miles.  13 and half hours.

 

Epic day.  We awoke at the crack of dawn, too early for our complimentary breakfast.  Headed out over the Rockies, with the blazing rising sun in our eyes. Wyoming was mostly signs for Little America, a truck stop.  Once we passed Cheyenne, it was untrodden territory for me.  By the time we reached Nebraska, we were already scouring the atlas feverishly for the next interesting thing to come up.  "Look, we are about to pass into a new county!" or my favorite, "Only 7 miles until we pass the unpaved road."  

At the first rest area in Nebraska, a nice lady told us it was still like 9 hours until Omaha.  With our heads hung, we drove and watched as cornfields filled our view--cornfields that fill up Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana--in fact, now that I think about it, we are still in the midst of cornfields.  

We passed glorious Lincoln in the evening dark and finally made it to Omaha.  We stayed with my mission bud Randy.  Talked about the mish.  Alyssa sat there patiently, probably dead tired as we laughed about the silly things we did.  

Day Four

 
 

Omaha, NE to Bloomington, IN

630ish miles  10 and a half hours

We had to get up super early so we could get to Bloomington (I want to shorten Bloomington to 'The Ming', you know in the style of Vancouver> 'The Couv') by 6 so we could meet our landlord and get into our house.  After the previous day's marathon, 600 miles seemed like nothing.  We first crossed over the Missouri River into Council Bluffs, Iowa.  As the sun rose over us, we were greeted by the rolling hills of Iowa.  In all, the Midwest as I have seen it has been more rolling than flat.  I was expecting flat, and I'm getting more curves, to be honest. 

In Des Moines, we had the closest thing to a crisis.  I mean, the odds are, on such a long trip, there has to be something, right?  Alyssa was napping as I was stunned by the booming metropolis of Des Moines, and all of its confusing freeways.  Right before my eyes I saw myself veering off onto another freeway when all my mind was thinking, "80.  80.  Stay on 80."  I mean, we had to stay on I-80 for over 1000 miles--it was the bulk of our trip.  Not too hard, huh?  But I started to take another freeway, and then realized my error and tried to pull over onto 80, but I took it a bit too late and the car went off the roadway, hit a pothole, bottomed out and woke Alyssa up.  In hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered if I had taken the other freeway, but I had visions of us ending up in South Dakota.

At the Quad Cities (for the uninformed, that's Davenport, IA; Bettendorf, IA; Rock Island, IL; and Moline, IL) we crossed over the great Mississippi into Illinois, the Land of Lincoln.  All of the states in this whole area try to claim Lincoln--we had seen a statue in Wyoming, there's Lincoln, NE, of course Illinois has a lot, Indiana says it was his boyhood home, Kentucky says he was born there.  I say, what's the big deal?  I was more excited to pass the Presidential Library of Herbert Hoover!

I thought the highlight of Illinois was Peoria (pictured above).  It was pretty.  We passed Bloomington, IL (ooh--so close) before we finally got into Indiana.  Once in Indiana, we had to take back roads into Bloomington.  We saw a bit of the countryside.  It's pretty here--there's forests and hills.  And, yes, corn.