Days 3 and 4, Monday and Tuesday, July 28-29, 2008: Naperville/Chicago, Illinois to Lincoln, Nebraska to Rapid City, South Dakota

Passengers: 3
Bags of chocolate: melted
Speeding tickets: 1

So wow…a lot has happened in the last 48 hours. We left Clare’s house and picked up Daniel at Midway. We then drove across Illinois and Iowa to Nebraska. This part of the trip can be summed up as follows:

1. Google “corn” and pull up an image of a corn plant.
2. Stare at it for 8 hours.
3. Get a speeding ticket.

But our long drive across America’s breadbasket was rewarded in Lincoln, where we met up with the fabulous J Jones, Ed Gerrish, and company. Lincoln was a very charming city and what seemed to me to be the gateway to the West. The vibe changed from one of people of the corn to one of more Western (dare I say it?) rugged individualism.

I wasn’t so sure at first because in order to reach Jonathan’s we had to pass a very large “Jesus Only” sign, which did not bode well for a Jew in the Midwest… But it turns out that Lincoln has a very large immigrant population, especially of Sudanese, because people are relocated to Lincoln by the Office of Immigration Services (is that the right name of the office?). Jonathan is also writing a fabulous pro-comprehensive immigration reform editorial for his local paper.

Jonathan and Ed were able to suggest an alternate route from Lincoln to Yellowstone since we had planned to cut across the entire state of Nebraska on Interstate 80, which is apparently the most boring road on earth. I am not going to lie, I was kind of scared when Jonathan circled Valentine, Nebraska on the map and told us to fill up on gas there because there would be no gas for a while…and apparently if there is gas, since there are often gas shortages people with access to said limited gas do not give it to non-locals. Ack!

Anyways, after filling up on gas and Coke products in Nebraska (and sadly after I had to stop at Wal-Mart to get bottled water and fruit, because there was NO OTHER OPTION…but don’t worry, I only spent $8.10…and I felt bad because a lot of people in that Wal-Mart looked extremely busted), we cut up into South Dakota so that we could see the Badlands (home to the indigenous black-footed ferret!), the Black Hills, and Mount Rushmore. Can you name all of the presidents on Mount Rushmore? We are not technically there yet, but I will keep you posted as to who they are.

You might have noticed that I have not mentioned Mike very much in this post. Sadly on this trip while we were fording a river with the help of the Indians, Mike contracted Typhoid. I suppose I shouldn’t have had us traveling at such a grueling pace…

Addendum for Mike’s parents and all others who were not born in the 1980s: Mike does not actually have Typhoid. Please Google “Oregon Trail Computer Game.”

Picture 1: Mike and his speeding ticket.
Picture 2: Daniel in trucker gear at a random gas station.
Picture 3: Badlands!
Picture 4: Badlands 2!