Well I must say, never have I seen so much corn in my life. 3 states full of corn! Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois were full of corn. Flat land, corn and a bunch of giant windmills. I now know why UNebraska's mascot is the Husker. We drove for probably 12 hours at least through corn. We stopped at the Worlds Largest Truckstop and it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be according to the dozens of signs leading up to it on Route 80.
We stopped in Omaha, Nebraska for dinner where the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed. Our car was also making a weird noise so we brought it to a shop to get checked out. Luckily it turned out to be nothing serious. But Omaha was GHOST town. It was 5pm and no one was walking around! Shouldn't people be leaving work at that time? We felt even more awkward walking around with our huge backpacks. Since the restaurant we had planned to eat at was closed we ended up eating at a local pub where we felt like total NY snobs. We asked for a Hard Cider and the guy looked at us as if we were crazy and said they did not carry it. Then I looked at the menu and saw it listed and asked for "Woodchuck" and he said "Oh, you want that cider stuff?" HELLO! YES! Then when we showed him our identification and he saw where we were from he gave us a weird look. Kind of the "NY? NJ? what are you doing in Omaha?" look. Then the hilarious food order came. Mary is a vegetarian and is allergic to gluten so she cannot eat much on a pub menu in Nebraska. She decides to order a Mandarin Chicken salad with no chicken. This same clueless waiter looks at her and says "NO CHICKEN?" as if it was unheard of to not eat meat. I ordered a chicken quesadilla to keep things less complicated.
We finally left Omaha and I saw dark clouds ahead. I started to freak out. I was showing my true east coast naiveness at that moment(I believed that every thunderstorm in the midwest meant tornado). I made Mary phone someone immediately to see if there were Tornado warnings. Luckily there were no tornado warnings but we had to pull over for thirty minutes because of the heavy rain and terrifying lightning. We even considered getting a hotel room the storm was so terrible. Eventually the storm blew away and we got back on the road. 6 hours later...we arrived safe and sound in Denver.
Our most beautiful drive was through Colorado into Arizona. The difference between the two states was amazing to see. We took Route 285 south through Colorado which brings you literally right in between in rockies and by what are called the Collegiate peaks. My second picture is one of the collegiate points. They are some of the highest peaks in Colorado. We had our cameras our for almost the entire 8 hour drive. We then took a pit stop at the 4 Corners where you can be in 4 states at once (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona). Sitting on the concrete border corners were HOT. I sat there for 2 seconds just to take the picture because it was boiling compared to those mountain ranges in Colorado. Arizona was amazing as well the red rocks and desert land was a beautiful place to watch the sunset. Although people drive like lunatics there! Everyone goes about 90 miles an hour and they pass you if you are not.
