After a much needed shower and contemplating whether the hair dryer or my hair caused the burning smell in the bathroom, Jay and I started our day with Bob Evans. Deciding against the usual eggs and toast for breakfast (I figured Bob just wouldn’t compare to Dad’s omelets and egg sandwiches), I ate the best bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and dried cranberries -- beat the Callahan, hands down! Unfortunately, the food and caffeine did not ease the headache I went to sleep with so when we stopped at the gas station, I decided to get some extra-strength Tylenol. As I walked into the store I held the door open for a man loading a hand-truck with beer. Well, he went from “Thanks, sir.” to “Thanks mam” to “I shouldn’t call you mam, I don’t want to get slapped this morning. Thanks, miss.” I couldn’t help but laugh and inform him I wouldn’t slap him. He later told another man working inside that I should get a free beer for helping him out…. I’m still waiting. Jay took the wheel for the first part of the day due to my headache -- which I didn’t complain about! We drove through Ohio which involved corn fields… corn fields… and more corn fields! I felt like I could see for miles and miles, the clouds appeared to just go on forever -- quite an incredible view. Whoever said the world is flat must’ve been looking from the mid-west because I would believe them too. Anyways, I decided that Ohio wins the prize for nicest rest stop so far. I felt like I entered an airport terminal. Starbucks, Panera, and classy music welcomed me and I enjoyed it very much. When we got into Indiana I took over driving, since my headache went away (thank you, peanut butter sandwich and Cape Cod potato chips!). Indiana proved similar to Ohio with, you guessed it, more corn fields! I’m telling you, I thought I had the corny-thing going on, but these states are way worse! Indiana won the punny sign of the day with “Are you feeling haul right?” I caught it quickly, but my educated guess leads me toward a U-Haul advertisement. I enjoyed it. So, Illinois also had lots of farms and corn fields. Each time we see the “Welcome to….(insert state here),” Jay and I have found it amusing to adopt the Count (from the Muppets) voice and say the number of states we have gone through. Example: when entering Illinois, “7 states. Ah ah ah.” So not long after taking over driving, the impending gas light caused me to make a very ethical decision: do I stay on the highway and go to a conveniently located BP at the rest stop or go a little out of my way to a different gas station. Well, I did it for the sea turtles and refused to go to BP -- Jay laughed at my protest. By the time we switched off I-80 (or 90, I can’t remember) and onto route 39, I could hear my stomach erupting -- I needed food. With some convincing, and threatening a very grumpy KFo, we stopped at “the Iron Skillet.” What an experience. This trucker stop clearly saw its fair share of men and women who pass through in need of “homestyle” cooking, which of course entails meat, meat… oh did I mention meat? I could feel the emotions sinking in, “I’m so hungry and all I want are veggies!” My eyes began to quiver. “Crap” I thought, “I need to pull myself together! There are truckers surrounding me and when they ask, ‘honey what’s wrong?’ what am I going to say, ‘There’s no vegetarian options on the menu!’” Needless to say, I pulled myself together and focused. I decided to order the tortellini… sans meat sauce and sausage. “You don’t want anything on it?” the waitress asked. I sensed the shock, and potentially judgement, and I timidly replied, “No, thats okay.” As we pumped gas around the corner, Jay spotted something I had never seen before, a tractor trailer which read, “Mobile Chapel: Transport for God.” Hm, I’m sure not in New England anymore! Jay took over the driving and I nursed my stomach ache. We found our way into Wisconsin, sang a little Ke$ha and danced. Jay has found an enemy on our trip -- my bladder. We have seen many rest stops, which I feel entitles me to judge them -- hence Ohio taking top honors. We arrived at Wisconsin’s welcome center/restroom about 15 minutes after leaving Rochelle in Illinois… poor girl, she seemed like a nice hitchhiker (insert knee slap, desperate laugh, and “but that’s funny!”) -- Rochelle is the town we stopped in for dinner. Anyways, the endless corn fields created an incredible foreground of the amazing sunset as I sprinted into the women’s room. My camera informed me its batteries were “exhausted” which meant rummaging through my organized-but-slightly-unorganized belongings to find my practically free 40-pack of AA batteries (Thank you, Lauri!). Luckily, they weren’t buried at the bottom of a tote so we were in business. As we drive into the night sky of Wisconsin, every so often a random water park surprised us… seriously, there’s been at least 4. One even had a ferris wheel while another was named “Noah’s Arc.” We also passed by some sort of bicycle museum. I pouted as I disappointedly asked my brother, “Why is it 9:30?” We crossed into Minnesota and saw signs for the Mississippi River -- too bad we could only see darkness. However, the terrain turned a bit mountainous for a few minutes… but it didn’t last long. We made it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we called it day. I will leave with the greatest named inn in Wisconsin: the “AmericInn.”
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