Into the Midwest

We're halfway through the month today and a lot has happened.


The first weekend this month I drove a total of 36 hours through the Midwest to visit my friend Chip in Ames, Iowa for 48 hours. By myself. The drive was incredible. Roadtripping by yourself is definitely different than being with other people. Naturally you get an independence when you're driving by yourself. You can stop whenever you want to, take as long as you want to, make little side trips to interesting things along the way, and all the while having no one to discuss or argue your plans with. There isn't much to see from Austin, Texas to Ames, Iowa but I did manage to stop at Turner Falls, Oklahoma half way through the state. It took me forever to actually find the falls, but at the top of a giant hill I saw them. I wanted to swim there so badly but I was in a hurry to get to Iowa so I just waved from a distance.

I met two bikers on Harley's that were really nice to me. They were extremely worried that I was driving so far by myself and offered me a few general road trip tips. Then they made fun of me for being a Texas Longhorn, haha.

I continued on through the rest of Oklahoma, then Kansas, then Missouri. I spent the night and the next morning I was caught in traffic in Kansas City, Missouri and while traffic usually frustrates the hell out of me, I didn't mind it that day because I was in the middle of downtown and that city is beautiful. I had to talk myself out of exiting every 5 minutes to go explore the city. I'll definitely be back some day to walk around and take pictures and of course try some bbq! On the way out from Kansas City, the interstate returned to two lanes and I was driving through a lot of nothingness for a while, until I saw a sign for this:

Of course you had to exit the interstate, drive through a couple of ten minute long towns, and cruise down a gravel road for eight miles, but eventually you'll get to the home of Jesse James. The woman staffing the museum was such a sweet old lady. She talked my ear off and you could tell they didn't get a lot of visitors each day because it was in the middle of B.F.E. like everything out there. You were supposed to pay $8 to tour the property but after I turned down the tour offer because I was broke and had little time, the woman secretly gave me directions to the house and told me to avoid the tour if I saw them. hahaha. You had to walk through the woods a bit to get to the actual house.

The house is tiny and cute. It definitely fits your idea of Missouri pre-turn of the century. Out back was a tombstone for Jesse. The woman in the museum told me its pretty new, made in the 1970s or something, because people would visit Jesse's grave and chip away pieces of his tombstone to take as souvenirs so the original one was just a small uneven block of stone now. I'm not sure if this is how the original one read or if the appreciation of Jesse in the modern world had something to do with it, but either way I like it.

After I left Jesse's house, I continued on through the rest of Missouri and a bit of Iowa before reaching Chip's house. My heart was exploding with excitement when I saw him run out into the middle of the road as I drove up his street. We were best friends when we worked at Disney World together and had spent every day with each other for the five months we were in Florida. It was a week short of five months since we had seen each other in May so we had gone through quite the withdrawal without each other. We hugged for five minutes then pulled up some lawn chairs and had a beer and smoked a cigarette in his driveway. That moment was exactly what I was looking forward to in the weeks preceding this drive. Just a moment to chill and be happy. Afterwards, we went inside, unpacked, then drove around Ames looking at the Iowa State campus in his Jeep Wrangler with the top down. The campus was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, I was cruising around in the car I've wanted since I was 16 and I was on vacation. It was wonderful. We went back to Chip's house so he could get ready for his very first fraternity event and after he left I played on the computer and watched Wizards of Waverly Place for a few hours. When he got home, we changed into different outfits about three times and then walked down the street to catch the Drunk Bus, a complimentary city bus just for carting students through the bar lined streets of Campustown. We drank a lot of tequila and beer, I was kissed on the cheek by a chiropractor, we karaoked and two-stepped, and did the Bad Romance dance. It was just like old times at Disney. haha. Feeling pretty good, we caught the Drunk Bus home and Chip proceeded to sing Miley Cyrus to the whole bus, who surprisingly weren't upset about it at all. We walked to his house from the bus stop, put on pajamas, and danced to the Hoedown Throwdown before passing out.

That last one is our rendition of the Bed Intruder song. haha.

The next morning, we drove the half hour into Des Moines to see downtown and the Iowa State Capital Building. It was beautiful! It certainly doesn't look like it belongs in Iowa of all places.

After searching for the  door to get inside for a good while, we finally made it in with 20 minutes left until the building closed because it was a Saturday. The security guard warned us of the time restraint and Chip replied in that we only wanted to see the library since it was the inspiration for the library in Disney's Beauty and the Beast (fun fact!). The library was locked up as it turned out but the guard was so nice and intrigued by our Disney knowledge that he escorted us to the library and unlocked the door for us so we could see it and take pictures. It was awesome!

 

After we left the capital, we drove through downtown Des Moines and stopped off at the Sculpture Garden there. 

   

 

After we left the Sculpture Garden, we drove around for a bit then parked and walked around a cute little section on the outskirts of downtown with a bunch of shops and gay friendly stores and bars. We went into Blazing Saddles, a gay Irish pub, and split a pitcher while talking to a few guys around us. It was an excellent way to say goodbye to the afternoon. When we were finished, we drove home, ate delicious meat loaf, watched part of Speed Racer and then got ready to hit downtown Ames again. 

   

The next day, I packed everything up for my drive back home and Chip and I went back near Iowa State campus to see the World's largest garden gnome. haha. 

Then we had our tearful goodbye and I started the long drive home. To make my drive more interesting, I decided to drive home a different way that I came and went through Omaha, Nebraska then on to Hastings, the nearest town to the Geographic Center of the United States, my fun excursion to break up my driving days. Standing in the center of the US was a strange feeling. It definitely felt like the middle of nowhere as the nearest city was 30 miles away. There was no one out there and it was freezing and windy as all hell. I attempted to take pictures of myself to document this moment in my life as I'm sure I'll never ever go to the middle of Kansas ever again. Self timer helped. 

 (The historical marker stating the exact center of the Continental United States)

(The church that sat six people. Of course no one was there, but I left a note. )

(Zombie Elvis, my travel companion)

After that, I drove another 12 hours home and that was that. All in all,  it was a really fun trip. I expected to just have fun seeing Chip but the Midwest does have some cool stuff to see and do after all, as sparse and spread out as it may be. haha.