Heres a little cheap screen shot of our trek to Minnesota
I started in my home for the past 5 years, San Luis Obispo, made a quick day stop in Alameda to pack all of my things and get a final Bay Area meal and then Tuesday Dad and I began our trip to the Midwest! On our first day we made it through Nevada until we reached Tooele, Utah. (Shout out to the Comfort Inn and Suites in Tooele for being one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in!) Tooele is about 15-20 minutes away from Salt Lake City where apparently it still snows. The first time I've seen snow in a long time!
Day 1 total driving time: ~10 hours. Hotel rating: 4.5/5 stars. Weather: Cold. Cold. Cold. Scenery: Beautiful! Max Speed Limit: 80 MPH!
Somewhere in Colorado. Somehow the only place we stopped.
Touristing Tourist Dad.
After Tooele we made our way through Colorado and stopped at the boarder in Cheyenne, Wyoming. (Digression: we were suppose to power our way to South Dakota but due to weather, and by weather I mean thunder storms and tornados, we made a last minute decision to take a different route. And....) On the way to Cheyenne, we stopped in this tiny tiny town called Rawlins. On a whim, I decided that we would go take a tour of the old Rawlins Penitentiary. Abandoned in the '80s, the penitentiary was the home to hundreds and hundreds of prisoners. We were shown the cell blocks, the showering stalls, the death chambers, death row, and the original hanging location. We also got to see the baseball field, the library and the dining area (which had some really wonderful, original murals done by an inmate named Art, who had one arm). It wasn't until after we left Rawlins that I started to do my research only to find that the prison is rated one of the top ten haunted places in the United States! AHHHH! Good choice self.
Our lovely tour guide in Cell Block B, I believe.
Dad finding his long lost cousin, Something-Something Yee, who happened to also be a cook.
Probably a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing. Or not, he does look like a Scary.
Causing trouble in Wyoming
The view from the jails' baseball field.
Anywhose, onward to Cheyenne. Cheyenne is a cute little town, with a massive railroad running through it. We had dinner in town at The Albany. Delish. Around town they have these human sized cowboy boots, each painted with a different design by different local artists. For breakfast we went to the Luxury Diner, where part of the restaurant is in an old caboose! 90% of the diners were old dudes that obviously go to the diner at least once every week. (I found out that Carl was 84 and had cataract surgery last year. George had a pancake that morning because he hasn't had one in a while. And Steve didn't want anything with sugar in it for his oatmeal...he also skipped out on the coffee and diet coke. Way to be healthy Steve!) From breakfast we headed to.....Lincoln, Nebraska!
Day 2 total driving time:~ 7 hours. Hotel rating: 2.5/5 stars (cause it smelled funny) Weather: Rainy! and Cold! Not the business. Scenery: I don't really know, it was raining too hard. Theres cool rock things...I think. Max Speed Limit: Probably 75MPH but it was raining.
From Cheyenne we headed to Lincoln, Nebraska. I was aiming for Omaha but that pesky College World Series was happening! Of course, being in Nebraska and 50 miles from Omaha, we had to have some Omaha Steak! So off to Misty's Steakhouse we went! Delish! And of course I wanted ice cream and guess what!? The University of Nebraska, Lincoln was a convenient 10 minutes from us. UNL's "Dairy Store" is plopped right in their dairy pilot plant, in their food science building. (I had french toast and Dad had peach!) UNL is a beautiful campus, almost beautiful enough to make me think about getting a second masters (ha! not). It was pretty nifty seeing their pilot plant, comparing it to the one at Poly and being able to identify all of the machines and whatnot. (My extra year of school did pay off!)
Day 3 total driving time:~7 hours. Hotel rating: 3.5/5 stars. Weather: Hot! Scenery: Flat Flat Flat. Max Speed Limit: Probably 75MPH again.
Last day of driving! From Lincoln, we passed through Omaha and Des Moines. Then Minnesota! FYI Minnesota has a really cool welcome sign when you enter the state...that of course I missed. The sign says "Minnesota welcomes you!" What it should say is "Minnesota welcomes you...to bumpy pot hole roads and the most confusing highways ever!"
So I'm here now after 4 longs days of traveling. As sad as it sounds Dad and I haven't really done much because of 'car-lag,' the equivalent to jet-lag. (Common symptoms include: sleepiness, tiredness, snooze all the time'ness). Thats it for now. I'll talk about a Juicy Lucy next time because it's that important. Till then...
Stay tuned! Stay hungry!
-Taryn Julia
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