Monthly Archives: August 2010
>DAY 2
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A day in Chicago, a night in the cornfields of Iowa.
After a wonderful nights rest, Rebecca showed Nic and I around her beloved city. We only had half a day, so Rebecca took us to some tourist delights. While I very much enjoyed all of what we saw, I am eager to visit Chicago again, and see some of its off-the-beaten-path treasures.
We took the Chicago transit system, uniquely called the “L,” over to Millennium Park. What is great about the subway is that it is above ground, so we had our own little tour of the city. The first thing that struck me about Chicago was the suburban feel in such an urban city. Amongst the city streets are houses with garages, basketball hoops, and gardens. I’ve never seen so many trees in a city, which for me was a real perk. Millennium Park was beautiful– full of greenery and artwork. After wandering around we headed to the Navy Pier, to say hello to a tourist hot spot and wondrous Lake Michigan. Rebecca told us about the history of Chicago, including the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. We listened, we enjoyed. We ate cinnamon-roasted almonds.
Half a day does not do Chicago justice, but we were eager to get out West, so left mid-afternoon. The plan was to drive for the rest of the day and find a campground in either Iowa or Nebraska. We painfully decided to check out Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, but soon figured out that it is pretty awful. I think we gave it a two out of ten, and only because it had nice signs. The only thing worth mentioning is that there is a “wall of pride” there, but I still have yet to figure out what Des Moinesians are prideful about. Whatever.
We kept driving and driving, hoping to soon arrive at this campsite in Nebraska. I had talked to a man directly on the phone, who told me about a shortcut to the park (see post-it below). He mentioned that the park would be empty due to a storm that just passed by, but we were welcome to pitch our tent in the upgraded RV section (woohoo!) and then leave him $10 in some box the following morning. It all sounded OK, except that we fucked up the short-cut directions and ended up getting lost in the cornfields of Iowa. After driving around in circles, stumbling to 24 hour gas stations that were closed (thanks), and getting slightly nervous, we sucked it up and began looking for a Motel 6.
We found one, and guess what? It was full. Now why a Motel 6 on the border of Iowa and Nebraska was all booked I do not know, but we were lucky enough to find another just as cheap just as stingy motel next door. We took showers, set our alarms for 7 am, and slept soundly, ready for our next day of driving to Colorado.
>DAY 1
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Departure: Franklin Square, NY
Destination: Chicago IL
Miles: 810
So. Our first destination was Chicago, Illinois. Nic and I knew we wanted to get out to Colorado to do some hiking, and we figured stopping to Chicago along the way would be much more exciting than Kansas. Also, we had never been, so why not make a pit stop at the Windy City? True to our word, we woke up at 4:30 am and were on the road by 5:00. We treated ourselves to the last good bagel we would have in a while (the one negative of leaving New York) and headed straight for the mid-west.
The drive really wasn’t that bad, for we were fueled on pure adrenaline. We switched driving every couple of hours, so by the time one of us got sick of being behind the wheel, we were pulling over and swapping places. Nothing really to note about our 13 hour trip, besides the fact that there was a TON of road kill (RIP 50+ deer, you will forever hold a special place in our hearts). After gaining an hour, we made it safely to Chicago at around 5 pm. My friend Rebecca from Skidmore very generously opened up her home to us, along with showing us around the city. Our one request to end our day of driving was to try some deep-dish pizza.
Turns out that deep-dish pizza is very good, if you are not comparing it to regular NY pizza. If you want something filling, bready, and much more “pie like,” then Chi Town’s signature may be for you. Rebecca took us to this local joint near her house, where we both indulged in two slices of saucy,cheesy, veggie goodness. Our food-induced coma made falling asleep quite easily, as we hit the hay around 9pm.
>DAY 0
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<–Nic and Laura, circa 2007.
Pre-departure musings: Why? How? Where? When?
So, why did Nicole and I decide to travel to the Southwest in June? Well, it went something like this: firstly, we both knew we were destined to travel somewhere together. For those that are unaware, I met Nicole my first day at Stonehill College freshman year . We instantly fell in love, but unfortunately Stonehill did not receive that same affection. I transferred, but Nic stayed in my life. We are both virtually the same person (we figured out that our husbands should be male-versions of one another), and figured that we should treat ourselves to some sort of trip together after graduating. We are both pretty low maintenance, free spirited, and adventurous. Our first plan was to work on farms in France, while fitting in a vacation-within-a-vacation to Morocco for a week. Once we calculated our route, looked up airfare, contacted farms, brushed up on our French, and got really excited, we totally nixed that plan and decided to stay state-side.
The U.S. is vast, the U.S. is diverse. It is cheaper; we speak the language. So, approximately a week after we both received diplomas from our respective colleges, we packed up some clothes, two tents (which was smart, because one broke [more on that later], a bin full o’ food, a gas stove, maps, a hammer, and a large knife, and headed out to see parts of this country that we had never laid our eyes, nor feet on.
It was great.
Camping Out In America 
