Random Thoughts From the Road

(Okay, not exactly from the road, since I have arrived at my destination in SLC, but you get the point).

We left not-so-early Sunday morning to head from N. VA to our new home in SLC. We arrived yesterday afternoon. I still have incredibly mixed feelings about everything, brought to the immediate surface by the dreaded pregancy hormones. I've cried twice today already, and it's barely even mid-day.

Himself drove the Big Yellow Truck - I've decided Penske is the way to go because their trucks are so easy to keep track of on the road. It was a permanent fixture in my rear-view mirror, as I was the pace-setter in our little caravan. Himself stalwartly drove the entire 2,300 miles with only AM/FM radio, which essentially does no good when you're driving through the middle of nowhere. I make a strong recommendation to Penske to at least put satellite radio in the trucks - better yet, satellite radio AND a CD/mp3 player. Something to break up the boredom. Poor guy. I at least got to listen to books on CD.

Some highlights from the trip cross-country:
-The drive up 15 to 70 and then to 68 from N. VA to Cumberland, MD, is STILL one of my all-time favorite drives. I love the serenity of the pastoral landscape going up 15. This time I viewed the drive with some longing, as I never did managed to hit the antique shops that line 15 on the Virginia side. It was raining a bit when we left MD, making the scenery even that much more beautiful.

-The cleanest restrooms were in the roughest-looking towns. Cumberland, MD, and Danville, IL, tied for cleanest gas station restrooms (being pregnant, I saw A LOT of restrooms on this trip). Danville, IL, was one of those towns that sent shivers up my spine when we pulled off the interstate for some reason. I made Himself stand guard outside the restroom door (it was an outside entrance), because it was dark, and I was in no mood for any kind of adventure to occur.

-The ENTIRE states of IL, IA and NE pretty much look the same, just like this ----------- (below the line is green, above the line is blue - making it a perfect landscape to paint for budding artists). Once in awhile, it changes to --------^------ with the ^ representing a silo or two, clustered at the far edge of massive fields of soybeans or corn.

-Iowa is prettier than I expected, and is prettier than Nebraska. I think soybean plants must be more attractive or Iowa gets more rain or something, because while it was treeless, for the most part, it was lush and green and the very picture of Americana - blue skies, fluffy white clouds, red barns, green fields, white clapboard houses. Essentially, Iowa looks like this:


-The rain smells better in Nebraska than anywhere else I've ever smelled rain. It also produces the coolest lightning storms I've ever seen, though I would have appreciated them both more, if they weren't simultaneously occuring while I was driving on a one-lane section of Interstate under construction, in the dark, behind a semi.

-Gas is Ohio is cheap. (Gasp! Did I just call $2.82/gallon cheap?! Inflation has hit my brain).

-Stopping every 90-120 minutes adds A LOT more time to estimated drive time than I previously thought. An average bathroom/gas stop was 20 minutes. *sigh* It meant 17 hours on the road one day, 15 the next and 9 the following.

-Finding Hostess crumb donuts is almost IMPOSSIBLE. Himself was on a mission to find them every day - we looked in a grocery store outside Dayton, OH; at a gas station in Pickerington, OH; at a gas station in Danville, IL - no luck. The next day we found them in Iowa City, IA, so I bought the last package. They seemed to be more common the further west we got, but I never did find a place that had more than two of them on the shelf.

FAVORITES:
*SIGN: "Fun Valley Ski Resort, Next Exit." This, not too far outside Des Moines, IA, on I-80. I phoned Himself in the truck behind me. "Did you see that sign?!" (Remember - Iowa looks like this ----------). Being from Utah, I had to laugh and wonder what Iowa's definition of skiing is. The horizon is truly flat - not a rise in site, let alone a hill. Turns out, today I discovered that the Fun Valley Ski Resort is no longer hosting winter activities. Guess someone found a real mountain and realized what he/she was missing.


*FOOD: Whiskey Creek Steakhouse, Whiskey Creek Steakhouse North Platte, NE. Himself insisted that we have steak in Nebraska. We called our trusty concierge service (still provided complimentary through my old job) to find a suitable place. They recommended Whiskey Creek. Even I liked the steak there - it was remarkable. It's a mid-western chain. I highly recommend it.

*DISCOVERY: Himself actually likes a cheap taco joint, Taco John's. Their apple/cinnamon/cheddar cheese dessert item was not too bad - definitely something I'll have to expirament on in the kitchen.

*ADVENTURE: Wal-Mart, 6 a.m., Tuesday, Sidney, NE. Himself had a call about a job interview while somewhere in Iowa. We found his suit (not too wrinkled), a suitable dress shirt (not too wrinkled if Himself didn't remove his jacket at any point) and a suitable tie (the only tie we found, fortunately corresponded with the shirt). But no shoes - one pair was in VA, the other in a box somewhere in the bowels of the Big Yellow Truck. Hence the trip to a 24-hour Wal-Mart to buy the only pair of black, non-velcro dress shoes they had in his size. Smelly Cheap Shoes: $15. Black Socks You Don't Need $3. 24-Hour Wal-Marts for your last-minute job interview needs: Priceless.

I'm so glad it's all over, though sharing the road with Himself was preferable to saying good-bye to him for a month today at the SLC airport. Poor guy has to do the drive all over again (granted, next time will be in the comforts of the "nice" car - w/ comfy leather seats and a 6-CD changer) in early July. Lucky him.