So as we continue eastward toward Grantham, PA we are quickly approaching the three week mark of our trip. We have covered 18 states, almost 8,000 miles, 5 national parks, and 7 major cities. With this said, its hard not to have a few good stories on the road.
Tangent #1- Thank goodness for cruise control. As I’ve stated before we have not and will not accumulate any traffic violations on this road trip. I must give plenty of thanks to cruise control for that fact. Its easy to get carried away when you are driving long hours and not paying attention to the speed of the car. Cruise control wonderfully takes care of that for us and allows us to smoothly glide at a comfortable 5 over the speed limit. With this said, there are those moronic drivers who fail to recognize that cruise control exists and end up looking like complete idiots on the road. I have no problem with people who do not use cruise control. I think its very useful but if you don’t like it, that’s fine. Seriously though, if you don’t use cruise control, at least maintain a consistent speed. So many people we’ve encountered fluctuate within 10mph. It becomes a nice little game of cat and mouse. I pass them, they pass me, I pass them, they pass me. Just drive the same speed please.
Road Kill!!- To say road kill has increased lately would not be telling the whole story. Animals have begun finding the path of our car and laying down dead just to make the road kill tally. As of last night the road kill tally stands at 105!! We chalked up at least 30 sacrificial animals in the last three days alone. The number one road kill came the other night as we were driving along a major interstate in pure darkness. A dead deer lay half on the side of the road and half in our lane. Guts were sprayed across the road and blood covered the lane. Whatever hit this animal had a personal vendetta against all animals. A statement was clearly made with this poor bambi.
I’ll just say that this next story was close to the demise of the group. After enduring three weeks together with little to no issues, this event almost ended catastrophically. Needless to say we are all still friends and the once tension filled night is now merely a funny story.
So at the beginning of the trip, while we were mapping our route out in our heads, on paper, and even calculating how long it would take us to get to places, we seemed to miss something. Our original plan was to drive through South Dakota and have a nice visit with JD’s grandmother in Nebraska. We trusted his sense of geography and figured it was a good place to stop for a place to sleep and maybe a bite to eat if we were lucky. JD said it was near Omaha or Lincoln which is awesome because those are two “big” cities in Nebraska by major interstates.
As it turns out, South Dakota got cut out of the trip and the plan was to drive straight from Yellowstone to JD’s grandmothers. So the night before we were scheduled to leave Derek and I were looking at the atlas to figure out the best roads to take for the long, 15 hour journey we had ahead of us. Wouldn’t ya know it, JD’s grandma actually lives in Madison, Nebraska. If you aren’t familiar with Nebraskan geography, that is directly in the middle of the state at least 100 miles from anything. Needless to say, Derek and I did not want to travel 200 miles out of our way simply for a bed to sleep in. The way we saw it we had slept in the car plenty already, one more night wouldn’t kill us. JD didn’t think so. So as we drew closer to the place where we would turn off the head into the middle of nowhere Derek and I started growing ever more hopeful that maybe JD would concede to the fact that his plan was ridiculous. No such luck. Understandably he thought it would be best to go through with the visit since he told her we were coming. Unwilling to argue with the “it’s the right thing to do” argument, we gave in and continued on towards Madison begrudgingly.
At this point Derek and I were a little upset about the circumstances and the gas we were losing with every mile out of the way we drove. However, JD had good intentions and it was a bed to sleep in so we didn’t feel like it was too big of a burden. 2 hours later, we turn onto the road where his grandma lives. After passing the road we needed to turn on, and turning into the wrong driveway once we arrived at her house. I must mention that when we turned into the wrong driveway we were not only a block away, but we were on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. Really JD, come on man-at least get the details right.
So we arrive at the house. After 10 minutes of hopeless searching for a spare key, JD informs us that we will not be able to enter the house that night and will be sleeping in the van. This did not go over well. No yelling occurred, no degrading comments were made, and no punches were thrown. It was no secret though that internally Derek and I were furious. At this point, JD was less than happy with the situation as well. Its not every day you get a chance to drive 15 hours and 2 hours out of the way for a good night’s sleep only to lay uncomfortably in a van full of stuff. When asked if we could call his grandma JD casually looked at his phone, looked back at us, and responded…”Nope”.
Like I said before, we smoothed things over the next day, settled the emotional affair and moved on. Our day spent in Nebraska however turned out to be marvelous. Since we arrived at the house at 4am we spent the entire morning sleeping. After a fabulous dinner prepared by JD’s grandmother and shared with his two aunts, we spent a good portion of the afternoon playing “I’ll buy it.” Card games at grandparents houses never seem to get old. After cards and a nap, we feasted again. I swear I ate more food that day than my stomach would ever want to accept. The great Nebraskan debacle ended up being a very pleasant visit with some great people. Nebraskans could teach the south a thing or two about hospitality. Maybe they should call it Midwestern hospitality.
In case you are wondering Nebraska is indeed exactly what people think of when someone says Nebraska. Corn and nothingness.
Quote of the day: “Lets just leave” - Derek after hearing the news that we would not be sleeping in a bed.
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