The Trip of a Lifetime! Part 1-The Drive

Last year Syd's husband, we'll call him Cy (mostly because that is his name), joined the Coast Guard.  Due to that fact, they learned that they were going to be moving to Woods Hole Mass. where he would be stationed beginning the end of September 2015. With all of the excitement that ensued and the planning that began, somehow it became decided that Kortney and I would drive Syd's car across the country for her because that would be much cheaper than paying to have it shipped over.  And also it gave Kort and I a chance to drive across the country with no children.  A win for us!!!  Neither of us had driven cross country and we were both excited.  I can't speak for Kort, but I was way more than excited!



So on the afternoon of October 1st we dumped off volleyball practice (we co-coached Ainsley and Bria's volleyball team) on our husbands, loaded up the teeny tiny Toyota Scion (with no cruise control) that was soon to become our best friend and headed off.  Until I realized I forgot my phone and so I drove back home and got my phone and then headed off again.  On the trip of a life time!!!

Our first night we only made it to Wyoming.  Where we stayed in a run down hotel full of Indian people.  It was strange.  When I called ahead to get the reservation and I was talking to an Indian person he was making all sorts of crazy claims, so I asked him if he was actually in Wyoming.  I was not aware that there had been a large exodus from India to Wyoming.  But apparently there has been.  I got yelled at for assuming this man wasn't in Wyoming, and then to my surprise there were multiple people from India working at that hotel.  Who knew!?  This was just the first little fun fact I learned while traveling across the country.

We made it through Nebraska our second night.  Our drive across the rest of Wyoming and Nebraska were pretty boring. Lots of cornfields.  And a lot of straight roads.

On our third day of driving we headed straight into Iowa.  Which I loved.  Somehow the cornfields there were beautiful.  The hills rolled and I loved driving there.  That is until they sent me a speeding ticket in the mail.  Now I'm not sure how I feel about people from Iowa.

We crossed the Mississippi River.  Stopped for a picture.  And then got back in the car.  We still had a long drive ahead of us!

By that evening we had made it to Michigan.  We took a few minutes to stop in and visit some old friends, the Ashby's, and took a few minutes to see Lake Michigan.  I had seen it from the Chicago side years ago. But seeing it in the daylight again was pretty amazing!  It is so beautiful there!

And aren't Kort and I beautiful too...after 48 hours in the car.  I literally wore the same pants for 3 days in a row.  We were super classy.

On our way our of Michigan we learned fun fact #2 on our trip.  We needed dinner and were running behind schedule and thought it would be a good idea to grab a pizza at Papa Murphey's to eat in the car.  Kort went in and ordered a Hawaiian pizza.  I went next door to get gas.  And Just FYI...you can fill a tank on a Scion for like $13 and drive forever. 

Anywho, I went back over to Papa Murphey's where we waited and incredible amount of time for our pizza.  Our first clue that something was wrong should have been when the girl working the cash register looked confused while pushing random buttons on her screen while repeatedly asking if we wanted a Hawaiian pizza.  Our second clue should have been when I was watching a guy make a pizza with the weirdest combination of toppings I had seen in my life and I thought, "who would order a pizza like that?"  Unfortunately we didn't realize anything was wrong until we were on the freeway and opened the pizza box and the stench hit our noses.  Our Hawaiian pizza came complete with BBQ sauce, pineapple, bacon, 2 pieces of sausage, a few pieces of grilled chicken, and piles of onions.  Not onions dispersed.  Piles of onions.  It was disgusting.

And now we know there is no such thing as a Hawaiian pizza in Michigan.

And then late that night, at like 1:00 in the morning, we made it to Canada. We barely made it across the border because Kort was tired and chatty and giggly. And apparently border patrol people don't like chattiness and laughing late and night.  Fun fact #3.



We pulled into our hotel in London, Ontario that night exhausted.  But our hotel was so nice!  I wish we had been able to stay there for more than 8 hours.  It was hands down the best hotel and breakfast of our entire trip.  We loved Canada!!!