hi kids!

[arethinn]

We're in Des Moines! Actually we're about to leave; I just noticed that this motel had a computer in the lobby. Iowa is pretty boring. Lots of corn fields (duh). There isn't a lot of difference in the landscape between Illinois and Iowa and I expect more of the same (except flatter; Iowa is kind of rolling) in Nebraska. We're going to be stopping somewhere in Nebraska tonight, I expect. So far the weather hasn't been too bad. It was snowing in Kalamazoo when we got up to leave yesterday, so I had to brush snow off my car with a towel and all, but the snow wasn't sticking on the ground so in terms of driving it was no worse than rain.

The coffee with the continental breakfast was disgusting.

There's a place called "Waffle House of America" in Michigan somewhere off I-94 W, about an hour or a little less past Kalamazoo. GREAT food. Excellent hash browns. I dunno what they season them with but it is really good. Their coffee wasn't so great either though. What is Tim Hortons doing right that everyone else is doing wrong?

Anyway, back on the road.

Comments

[rainsingingwolf.livejournal.com]

Excellent hash browns.

You know what I miss? Real hash browns. I remember when they used to actually fry hash browns, rather than just bake them, or whatever they do. It seems pretty pointless even to get hash browns any more because of it. :P

[gothikfaerie.livejournal.com]

Nebraska is *much* flatter than that. And really nothing but corn. Hope you have some books on tape or other things to amuse on the drive. But then you might get to the Black Hills, depending on your route, and that's worth a trip. Not to mention Wall Drug!

[cudubh.livejournal.com]

No, it's Kansass you have to worry about. Personally I don't think anyone MEANT to wind up living in Kansas. Traveling across the prairie, break a wagon wheel, desolation sets in so you just settle in and wait to die. It's a pattern I assume continues today. Drive down I80, throw a rod, mechanic tells you it's going to be a good two weeks before the part comes in and you sigh and just buy a house in Somewhere KS, raise kids and are never heard from again.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

Actually, Kansas isn't on either of the major ways driving across the US. You clip a tiny corner of it in the "southern route" (going from Illinois down through Missouri, to Texas, etc) but you don't really have to go through it. In any case, it isn't on I-80.

[cudubh.livejournal.com]

I couldn't remember what the major route was. I just remember going all the way through it when going from Missouri to Colorado and being bored to tears. My favorite part of Kansas was the sign that said "You are now entering Colorado". Of course it's a terribly mean trick, because Eastern Colorado looks JUST LIKE KANSAS!

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

*scratches head* The Black Hills are way up in South Dakota. Highway 80 runs through the southern part of Nebraska. We saw some highway signs for some attractions that were pretty far off (like for Yellowstone, which is in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, when we were way down in southwestern and south-central Wyoming), but none for the Black Hills.

[gothikfaerie.livejournal.com]

you know.. its been nearly two decades since i was out 'that-a-ways'. i think maybe we went across on I-*90* and came back on 80. Which would explain how you missed the Black Hills and i didn't ;}

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

There's a chain in the Midwast called "Waffle House" -- is that what you're talking about? Because yeh, their hash browns are the BEST.

Nebraska, as you will have discovered by the time you get this comment I'm sure, is DEAD BORING and tedious. You're taking 80 all the way across, I gather? Be warned -- Wyoming is EVEN MORE BORING IF YOU CAN IMAGINE. At least Wyoming on 80 is boring; it's not flat, though.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

"There's a chain in the Midwast called "Waffle House" -- is that what you're talking about?"

I don't know. We only saw the one and it was definitely "Waffle House of America" (I checked the photograph).

I'm not sure whether Wyoming or Nebraska was more boring, but Nevada pretty much has them both beat, in my mind. Just tons of desert brush, and without the neat rock formations...

[gesigewigus.livejournal.com]

What is Tim Hortons doing right that everyone else is doing wrong?

Heroin in the coffee

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

enotsola says someone once told him it was a small quantity of cinnamon, actually...

[cudubh.livejournal.com]

It's my Honey and my opinion that IA is the most unfriendly state in the union. We started noticing it on our trips to NE and MO. They don't really list where food is off the hiways. Then on our honey moon we stopped at a "Hospitality Center" at the edge of the state, and they had pamphlets of all the "intresting" things to see in Iowa...locked up behind glass where you couldn't get any of them. So we started coming up with new mottos for Iowa like:

Iowa: We don't take kindly to strangers here.
Iowa: Children of the Corn was a Chamber of Commerce promotional film
Iowa: You know that Missouri's a nice state, why don't you gawk over there?