On our way home, we decided to make a few stops. First up was the seemingly World Famous Wall Drug. I have never, nor will I ever, see such a comprehensive and aggressive advertising campaign as that of Wall Drug. Signs for the Free Ice Water (which was not ICE water, FYI) and the amazing T-Rex were spied as early in the trip as Iowa...some 500 miles away!!
What's more interesting is the fact that Wall Drug, once there, wasn't nearly as interesting as the signs led us to believe. (What?!? No truth in advertising?) Both sides of the street were lined with little Western type stores peddling their wears. Becky bought a cheap Sturgis Tie Die shirt, and has now vowed to buy a motorcycle...unless it has a side car or three wheels, don't expect this guy to ride it!
After Wall, we took a scenic drive through the Badlands, which was very nice...until we were 45 minutes into the trip with what seemed like 45 more to go...low on gas, hot (we had to turn the air off to conserve gas) and hungry. We finally made it out and headed towards the South Dakota, Iowa border, where we were going to take 29 south to 70 East in Missouri..then home.
Well, Becky had the wheel, and I had the atlas. I saw that 29 ran sooooooo close to the borders of both Nebraska and Kansas, that we would be remiss not to at least scoot in, say we've been to those states, and cross them off the list of states we've been in together. (For the record, I've been to Nebraska and Kansas before...Omaha to play in the US Volleyball Zonals, and Kansas when I came West before with my family in 88.)
The plan was set. We drove for awhile, ate lunch, and switched drivers. It was dark, and I'm not that great a driver in the dark...but I survived. We saw a sign for Decatur, Nebraska...2 miles, so we took the exit. A quick right, and we were faced with a 7 mile jaunt. Fine, let's do it. We drove the 7 miles in the pitch black...crossed the Missouri on a rather rickety bridge, and came to...a TOLL BOOTH! What suckers!! We couldn't turn around, because there wasn't anywhere to turn at...just the bridge and the booth. So, we paid our 75 cents and entered the hustle-bustle town of Decatur...ok, so there are two things there:
1. A bar
2. A gas station which was closed...AT 9:30!! Who closes a gas station at 9:30?
So, we turned around in the gas station parking lot and beelined straight back to the toll booth. 75 cents, please.
"I just came for your gas station and it's closed."
"Yeah, he closes early, 75 cents."
"I was only in this town for 30 seconds."
"Yeah, I know, 75 cents."
I ponied up the dough, and high tailed it back across the bridge, back onto 29, and back towards home...but for some reason, when we saw the lights of Omaha, we had to stop. Yikes! I drove in, went to a gas station/grocery store...trying not to make eye contact with the locals (cause they were scary!). I got back into the car, and drove out of Omaha.
Nebraska: Check
We decided we would drive another couple of hours, and end somewhere between Omaha and Kansas City. I popped in a mixed CD and set the cruise control. It was a surreal feeling when the Bruce Springsteen song "Highway 29" came on the disk...especially since we were on that very road.
SATURDAY:
The one time we really wanted to get an early start was Saturday. Of course, Saturday was the one day we slept in. How could we help it? The room had NO CLOCK! We left at 10, and proceeded down 29. Becky was driving when we hit the Kansas City, Kansas exit. We made our drive into Kansas, turned, and made our way out making note that we drove on the George Brett Super Expressway (or whatever George Brett's road is called.)
We hit 70 and drove across Missouri to St Louis. There we stopped to see the Arch, as we had never seen it before. The place was packed for the summer concerts on the river, but we managed to get in, see the arch, and get out. The arch is very impressive, and I only wish we had an extra hour and a half to wait, so we could have traveled to the top...but it was already 7:30 at that point, and we had several hours of driving left to go before we arrived at home sweet home.
We finally got back on the road at 8 after driving in circles downtown. The roads were all closed off for the concert, and for the American Idol auditions (which was kinda neat to see all these hopefuls sitting out in the grass singing. The next Idol could have been right outside our car!!) By the time we found the right road, crossed the Mark McGuire Super Highway (or whatever HIS road is called) , we were starving because we had decided to eat AFTER the arch, so we could see it in the daylight. Well, St Louis is on the Illinois border, so we crossed the border and drove on the most uninhabited stretch of land known to man. It was a good 2 hours before we hit a town with a legitimate restaurant in it. Effington, Illinois. It was 10, but lucky for us, their was a steakhouse open. We stopped, ate, and estimated we should get from Effingham to Terre Haute in an hour, and from there to home in an hour and a half...making us in bed by 1:30am. Things went smoothly...the drive was long and I only had Chris Cornell and Josh Clayton Felt to keep me awake, as Becky snoozed in the passenger seat.
It was just past 1:30 when we pulled into the driveway...half asleep, and happy to be home.
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