Road Trip, Installment 2

Utah is very interesting for a number of unique reasons, but one of the things I like most about it is the mountains. They're big, very pretty, and give you something to look at in addition to helping you orient yourself. These mountains lasted for about an hour as I set out up Parley's Canyon, and once I hit Wyoming America became one gigantic pancake of a landscape. I had some conception of the vast breadth of the flatlands, but no idea of how incredibly unchanging the scenery can be. From Wyoming right up until New York there were nothing but corn fields and farms for as far as the eye could see. Even the slightest little hill became very interesting.

Sitting down in a car for eight hours a day, which may seem daunting at first, is actually not as bad as it seems. At first I was a little worrisome to think about how long it would actually take to drive the 650 miles from Salt Lake to Nebraska on the first day, but once I sat down the miles just flew by. I even found myself getting into a little bit of a frenzy, intentionally not stopping at gas stations to take rests to see how far I could actually go in a sitting. By the end I think I was averaging about 200 to 300 miles at a time, only stopping twice a day for gas or to make myself a sandwich. Getting 35 to 40 miles per gallon also helped me stay on the road; there's no better incentive for continuing on when you don't actually have to stop!

The towns I stayed in weren't terribly interesting. I picked North Platte, Nebraska completely arbitrarily. Initially I had planned on staying Cheyenne, Wyoming, but that didn't seem far enough to go on the first day, and I didn't want to have to make up the distance on the other days and completely wear myself out. North Platte was a funny little town. The hotel I was staying at was in the center of a big collection of other hotels, and there were about three local restaurants I could find in the dozens of chain restaurants surrounding them. Beyond the tourist/traveler section of town were just flat little suburbs.

Davenport, Iowa didn't have a lot going on either. I chose it because I thought I recognized the name from the Music Man, I think at one point it's mentioned that Harold Hill is from Davenport. Instead of a whole assortment of hotels there was just one lonely little one right off of I-80. Downtown seemed to consist of a modest little strip mall along the side of the main road, and everything else was houses and farms. For dinner that night I indulged myself with my one stop at a fast food restaurant, and chose McDonalds. You could tell the place was well patronized; it was absolutely gigantic. There was a big dining area with a bunch of booths and nooks with tables in them, and there was a little kids section as well with chairs shaped like Ronald McDonald, all facing a television showing a Disney cartoon. Oh to grow up in middle America.

I was going to stay with someone in Cleveland, and was going to venture out of my way to head down to NYC to see a few of my friends in VoiceStream and to get shown around the city, but both of those plans ended up falling through at the last minute, so I ended up just staying in another hotel outside of Cleveland for the last night. For dinner I headed off to the Pier W restaurant, which had a great view of Lake Erie, and was right across the bay from downtown Cleveland. The place had complimentary valet parking, and as I was walking down the stairs from the entrance an elevator opened up with trio of old businessmen discussing whether money was being allocated properly in the Company. They all had suits on, I on the other hand was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and the shirt had stains on it. I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I was lead past the other patrons by the hostess, feeling the incredulous looks on the back of my neck. Dinner, a 16 ounce steak, was served on a square plate. Dessert was creme brule with chocolate shaving on the top, with strawberry wafers arranged artfully in whipped cream on the side. It was incredibly expensive, but absolutely delicious, and the view was incomparable.