Day 4: The Open Road!

I have never in my life been so happy to arrive at a 1 1/2 star hotel, but more on that later. Let's recap our day of epic driving:

This morning we departed early (8am) to grab some Starbucks and replenish our double stuff Oreos supply. Soon it was on the road, and boy was there a lot of road. We were so excited to be up early that we couldn't stop talking about exciting subjects such as Chris not wanting to dance in small clubs, Hannah Montana's (now ex-) boyfriend, and whether Wegman's cracked pepper and sea salt kettle chips were better than some other cracked pepper sea salt chips we found in Dominik's, a really lame IL supermarket. Hey, we promised to share the mundane...

11:52am, Mile 1,439
It was not long after leaving Illinois that we ran into some naaaaasty rain in Iowa. We came to the general conclusion that Iowa is pretty damn boring, but our judgment may have just been clouded (pun intended) by the poor weather. It sort of made it hard to seen anything past the few farms we could see from the road. HOWEVER. Then we came upon bliss a few short miles later. Here's the terrible rain we had to drive through:


12:44pm, Mile 1,473
There is no way to describe what happened here any better than what the place was called-- "Iowa 80: World's Largest Truckstop." These pictures are worth many, many words:




2:17pm, Mile 1,573
We stop for lunch in Grinnell, Iowa, a place where one of our friends went to college, which was probably one of the saddest places ever. We got Taco Bell for lunch, which was one of the saddest meals ever, and I speak for all of us when I say that we will not be back to Taco Bell soon. After getting back on the road, we became saddened upon realizing we had been on the road for almost 6 hours and still had over 6 to go... Hours later, as we crossed into Nebraska, the rain cleared up and the gorgeous views of the Nebraskan (?) landscape opened up before us. Iowa had saved itself a little bit with some nice views of wind turbines through the hills. We were all so exhausted and sick of being in the car, we sort of zoned out and powered through to our hotel. Here's some shots from the end of Iowa and Nebraska:




9:24pm, Mile 2,039
2,000 miles!! Oh my god, Hospitality Inn, we love you. Rated 1 1/2 stars on expedia, this quaint little room with 2 queen beds cost us a whopping 50 bucks. However, North Platte is an oasis of wonderful in a desert of hundreds of miles of nothingness. We grabbed some big bottles of beer and Sonic (my first Sonic experience!) and crashed in the hotel. Now to grab some sleep and head off to Salt Lake City tomorrow! Here's North Platte for your enjoyment:


Oh, and Nebraska sunset.


Love, us!