On the Way

We made it to Wisconsin.

Remember how I wrote that we were leaving very soon on Thursday? Well, "very soon" turned into almost two in the afternoon. Our whole journey was shifted and meant that we had to drive until after midnight every night. On Friday night (or rather, Saturday morning) we rolled into our hotel at about 2. I'm still not recovered.

But as I said, we made it. Here are some highlights of the trip.

• We saw some cool wild animals, some alive, some not-so-much. In Utah we saw a huge Moose on the side of the road. Wyoming was full of pronghorn sheep. A coyote wandered down the freeway next to us in Nebraska. We drove by a Bison farm in Iowa. And in Sidney, Nebraska a prairie dog scurried around the McDonald's parking lot. The kids and I were highly amused by that.
• We got to stop and visit my cousin Elise and her family in Iowa. Our kids are similar in age and it was a relief for everyone that they got to run around the backyard and let out their stuck-in-the-car-pent-up energy. And Elise sent us on our way with a bag of treats that included two delicious loaves of homemade bread. We're still eating them. Thank you Elise!
• Iowa wins for the best rest stops. We stopped at one that was dedicated to local writers - it was really cool. And clean.
• We crossed the Mississippi! That might not sound like a big deal, but I was thrilled. As in, I was hooting and giggling as we drove across the bridge. It's a good thing we decided to take both of our cars, because I would have driven Bryan a wee bit crazy. But we crossed the Mississippi! And the radio and TV stations start with a W instead of a K!
• Iowa and Wisconsin are both beautiful. They're clean and green and quite lovely to look at.
• I now know that I have the ability to drive 1500 miles. That blows my mind just a little bit. Bryan enjoys driving more than I do, so he usually drives during our road trips. This is the longest and farthest I've ever driven. I feel like I can do hard things. And that's important because we're living in a 500 square foot hotel suite for twelve weeks, and I can already tell that this is not going to be easy.