of states that I've been in.
Now with more Kansas!
(and Missouri, which is where I am now).
So:
CA, NV, UT, WY, NE, IA, IL, IN, MI, then the 2nd half of that list backwards to CO, now KS and MO. Oh, TX, MN and AZ if airport stopovers count.
The first half of the drive (eastern CO/western KS) was in pitch black in the rain so I missed some of the more boringer stuff. Then the sun came up and KS was kinda pretty. Actually not that flat (at least the eastern parts) and a lot more trees than I thought. Nebraska is boring flat and boring and flat. KS isn't so bad akshually.
And MO is cool. It reminded me of MI a lot in the north, but down here in the ozarks it's quite interesting. The places where they've cut the road through a hill show completely different rocks than MI or anywhere else. The trees are a lot more deciduous (and according to my mom, the dogwoods are in bloom) and the roads are curvy instead of up and down but straight. Fun driving (too bad there's 500lbs of crap in my car) but kinda annoying in the rain.
Oh yeah, rain. Tearing down I-70 in torrential downpour in pitch black in the middle of nowhere at 2am on a Sunday morning.... Yeeha! Sleepyness wasn't a problem. Stuff's freaking harrowing. Rain stopped with sunrise (half through KS) but started up again about halfway through MO and got quite heavy towards Springfield. Good thing about the rain is it kept the bugs down (said bugs experienced through KC while it was dry, I'mma need a good wash next week).
But I beat my parents here. They flew from SFO to DFW to ... Springfield, MO. They were at the airport when I left Denver and in Springfield getting their car when I drove by.
Oh, serious hilarity: their compact car is a VW NewBeetle. Green. Yes. That green.
We drove around Ava, MO (where we is, about 20 minutes away from the property they bought) in my car because I was NOT going to pile into the back of a NB.
After some pizza we crashed around 4pm and I woke up at midnight and am now awake (which is pretty close to what I'd do on a weekend anyway). I'm drinking coffee and will be trying to flip my schedule later today (should be easier with less stressful stuff going on).
Car's doing great, averaging 35mpg or so, which isn't bad for ~900mi at 70-80mph with a bunch of crap in the trunk on an engine that finally went into 4 digit mileage on this trip. The drive was comfortable (heck of a lot moreso than the escort) except cramps in my right foot (solved with very sparing use of cruise control for a minute at a time).
So except for being up at the wrong time, kinda hungry, and wanting a smoke (it's been 6 weeks and I haven't slipped up) and being not impressed with the 'free wifi' (you get what you pay for) at the hotel (extra parenthetical for effect) I'm doing good. I have a camera with me and will have plenty of pics.
