End of the Road

Our next stop after Boulder was North Platte, Nebraska.

1. Nebraska 

Nebraska is home to Omaha steak and many bugs. Many. many. bugs. When we checked into our North Platte hotel, we received a notice under the door explaining that the massive numbers of cockroach-like bugs we were about to see were, in fact, NOT cockroaches. North Platte is a small town with many strip malls. There weren't many sites to see, but it was a great opportunity to finally do some much needed laundry. Here were the directions we got to the laundromat from the hotel desk clerk: (in a mid-western drawl) "Make a left. Make a right. It's down by the Wal-mart." To our surprise, the directions were really helpful.

Get in the zone. Laundry zone. 

Dan asked where the historic downtown of North Platte was. The hotel desk attendant looked confused and said, well, there isn't one. But we found this totally cute area that seemed like a historic downtown area. We got some coffee there at a local coffee shop and saw this old building across the street with the star of david on it. 

At the coffee shop. 

After we left North Platte (cleanly clothed) we still had more of Nebraska to get through! We stopped in Lincoln, hoping to hit as many state capitals as possible. Although it is the capital, Lincoln's main focus seemed to be on the college (Go Cornhuskers!). During the summer, the town was very empty, but we did run into some crazy Christian fundamentalists. A man and his dour looking wife stopped Dan and tried to offer him a "Frequent Sinner Card." Dan: I don't think I need that. Fund. Man: How'd you get better than me? The man proceeded to fabricate a story in which Amy murders Dan. (Amy didn't like this scenario) Dan is dead on the floor and he must approach God and tell him why he deserves to be in heaven. How will Dan know what to say? Dan: I better take one of those cards then.

For dinner we ate at a noodle place and split some mac & cheese and pad thai. Strangely, we were sitting next to someone from Pittsburgh! She was a sorority girl and was back at school early for sorority events. We didn't talk to her, but we overheard her say.... "yeeeeah. I'm from Pittsburgh. Home of the Champions. woo."

2. Iowa 

After trekking through Nebraska, we entered into Iowa. Iowa had very beautiful countryside, full of rolling hills and green farmland. Sometimes we noticed that Iowa differentiates between its "modern" rest stops and every other rest stop. We thought at first that maybe modern rest stops had things like wi fi and restaurants. It turns out modern just meant they had toilets. The non modern rest stops were code for- go in the woods.

Taking a break to walk along the cornfields. 

They look beautiful, but don't get too close! There were so many bugs they made a sizzling noise. We saw thousands of grasshoppers jump out of the corn as soon as we came near. 

That night we decided to stop in Des Moines for dinner and a hotel for the night so that we could continue our state capitals theme. But it turns out that it was time for the Iowa State Fair. All the hotels in Des Moines were packed to the gills. So we kept on driving.  http://youtu.be/VSKa29E4T7o

That night we stopped at an Iowa rest stop that was flooded because Iowa had recently experienced flooding. At night we stayed in a hotel in Davenport, Iowa, one of the quad cities. The next day we decided Davenport was not as cool as we had hoped and continued driving east to Illinois.

3. Illinois

trying to get the iowa sign. oops.

better luck with illinois

Our stops in Illinois included a brief few hour stop in Joliet, IL and 2 nights in Chicago. Joliet had a big Harrah's Casino, but we only went to the library. Apparently we had gotten tired of taking pictures by Chicago because we don't have any. Our first night in Chicago we stayed out by the O'Hare Airport, where it was like a hotel city. We ate dinner at a delicious tapas restaurant in Lincoln Park. The next day we went to Lakeview to go shopping and visited some of the places Dan used to go to when he lived in Chicago. At night we visited Dan's aunt and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. The next day we saw our friend Jeff in Obama's hometown neighborhood, Hyde Park. That pretty much sums it up!

4. Indiana/Ohio 

Then we drove through Indiana and Ohio.

The end! 

Living Bouldly

Next Stop: Boulder, CO

After Denver we took a day trip up to Boulder before continuing our drive home. Boulder was one of the most fun places we visited. In the morning we walked around the market area, which was extremely crowded and lively. Street performers such as musicians and magicians dotted the streets and a variety of food stands and shops accompanied them. We got coffee at a neat little coffee shop called the Laughing Goat. Then we went shopping for a shirt because Dan desperately needed some clean clothes after weeks of traveling. 

Driving into Boulder. There is a dancing mattress across the street!

Boulder had a lot of marijuana-related items for sale. We saw this among other cookbooks. Later, after our hike, we saw two people smoking pot at the entrance of the trail. Dan said, "welcome to Colorado, man."

After shopping in the morning, we took a hike. The trail was very rocky and steep, but it was worth it when we saw the views from the top.

very rocky and steep climb!

Dan's hiking outfit: Shirt bought that morning in Boulder, dress pants and falling apart sandals.  Thankfully a minor slip was all that happened coming back down the rocks in his sandals!

Butterfly.

Descent! Two people passed by us and said that we had just passed a bear that we didn't see. We were both relieved and sad not to have any interaction with the bear. 

Things Get Rocky

   

Next Stop: Denver, Colorado 

Finally a break from driving! After lunch in Cheyenne we drove to Denver, CO, where we stayed with Dan's wonderfully hospitable cousins for 2 nights. The first thing we did was see a Colorado Rockies game.
(this picture to the right is a blurry interpretation of the "Welcome to Colorado" sign.)

Rockies v. Brewers

The next day Dan's cousins took us to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the site of many big name concerts and spectacular red rock formations.

The statute and plaque above were at the entrance to the theater. It was placed in honor of the Civilian Conservation Corps workers from the New Deal that helped to build the theater. 

View of the rocks. 

The stage and seats. The guy in the middle was doing push ups all the way up the stairs, doing one on each step and switching arms each time. It was almost as impressive as the geology. 

Later that day our hosts took us downtown and to an area of Denver known as "Lo Do," which was very fun. We went to a famous independent bookstore called the Tattered Cover and took in some of the sites. At night we got some fabulous Mexican food and relaxed over a game of scrabble.