So we might be the most ridiculous people – after our trip last year to Niagara Falls, we decided to go big or go home for our vacation this year. We landed on a two week cross country road trip driving from Boston to California and back. In a sedan.

Suffice it to say that many people tried to talk us out of it, told us to drive one way and fly back, and a myriad other alternative options.

Being two incredibly stubborn people, their persistence made us dig in harder. We (mean I) wanted the insanity, the adventure, seeing as much as possible. So we set off at 3 in the morning not knowing exactly what we were getting ourselves into. The car was beyond full, and the passengers seat couldn’t actually recline all the way even though that’s where we’d take turns napping while the other person drove.

The beginning was a ton of fun – Chris had driven across the country before, but I hadn’t. At first everything was exciting…

Looking back I now realize I was insane. The first two days of driving on the Pike (Route 90) was quite literally driving by corn fields. I had heard about how boring the mid west was to drive through, but luckily my adrenaline was high, we were listening to Harry Potter on tape (thanks Carly & Mike!), and we were going on an adventure.

SO. MANY. CORN FIELDS.

And our first landmark?

The Corn Palace

That’s right. More corn. We drove 1,615 miles to see more corn.

A 10 minute drive off of the highway, it was worth getting out to stretch our legs… and to feel like we saw something other than corn fields. Free to visit the Corn Palace was made in 1892 in Mitchell, South Dakota to show off the SD harvest. Every year they switch up the murals – when we visited it was Rock of the Ages, hence all of the music-themed corn “art.” It’s basically a small convention center now – they had a craft fair going when we visited.

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Back on the road. To my fellow New Englanders who are used to going 10 over on any road or highway and it being kosher… it’s not in the midwest. The highway speed limit is 80, and it go more than 2 mph over, they’ll pull you over. I learned the hard way – my first parking ticket. This trip was already turning out to be memorable! The Manfriend of course thought it was hysterical.

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Another thing to note – the weather changes rapidly. We got out to stretch our legs and look out across the flat Great Plains, and then not even ten minutes later back on the highway, we saw this storm rolling. Even with the windshield washers on the rain was filling out windshield, so we (along with everyone else) pulled over until it passed.

… and then not even ten minutes later back on the highway, we saw this storm rolling. Even with the windshield washers on the rain was filling out windshield, so we (along with everyone else) pulled over until it passed.

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