This was kind of ridiculous. We left Janice's at 9pm or so with the intention of driving for 24 hours straight to Joe's house in Nampa, ID.
For the first few hours, we stuck to this plan pretty well. But after trading driving back and forth a few times, Eric finally decided to pull over at some parking area in the middle of Illinois. I remember waking up, seeing nothing but pitch blackness, and asking if we were at a rest stop. Eric said yes, and apparently I crashed back out.
We stayed there for a couple hours and as the sun started to make it's way up, we got back on the road. He drove for a few hours, then I took over. I was still pretty tired, but Eric had been driving for a while and deserved a rest. After about an hour, I could tell I was starting to fade, so I stopped for a Red Bull. Everyone talks about the energy you get, and the ads say you'll get wings. So I drank 2 Red Bulls and a bottle of water. I'm pretty sure I drove for another 8 hours or so, with 2 more Red Bulls in there somewhere. I was hopped up on something fierce!
I started driving in Iowa and Eric took back over somewhere in Wyoming. He drove through Utah and the first half of Idaho, and I finished up to Joe's.
For the most part, the weather was really nice...until we got to the snow storm moving through Salt Lake City. We were reminded of the movie "Stargate" when we'd flip the high beams on.
Here are some of the other pictures I was able to snap across the country.
Here are the times we entered each state:
CST
09:37pm - Illinois
12:05am - Iowa
08:38am - Nebraska
MST
03:20pm - Wyoming
09:12pm - Utah
11:54pm - Idaho
We pulled into Joe's at about 3:15am, or so. As we made our way to the back side of the house, we were really worried that we might have the wrong house. That would have definitely changed the story for this posting. It probably would have started like "National Road Trip - Jail Time". But, we were in the right place and were welcomed by a well made bunk bed. I was very much excited to sleep horizontally.
So now we're here for two days to spend some quality time with our friends Joe, Brandi, and new baby Eleanor Jude.
Here's a sneak peak of Eleanor;
