Jim and I have determined that you call people from Wyoming “Wyomers”. That must be right — it’s proper conjugation. At any rate, yesterday saw us through Nebraska, and to a neat little motel run by the cutest little old Asian lady ever. (Korean, apparently — Jim saw her with a Korean/American phrase book.)
     There’s not much to say about Nebraska, really. The eastern half of the state is pretty blah. Corn and cows and minor hills … and a whole hell of a lot of sky. Iowa had that too. I think it’s just because there’s not much getting in the way of the view. Michigan’s all clogged up with trees, so we don’t get that expansive view of the sky, like they do in Nebraska and Iowa.
     At the very western edge of the state, the country abruptly turns cowboy on you, and suddenly, instead of cornfields, it’s all ranches and cows and horses ranging everywhere, and the scenery goes from green-yellow with prairie grass and black-eyed susans along the edge to all brown, with lots of bluffs and cliffs and steep, rolling hills. It doesn’t quite work up to real mountains, but it tries hard.
     Also, Nebraska and Iowa? Very windy. Like, pain in the ass windy. It’s blowing my little Yarrr-is around a bit. Makes driving fun, particularly when passing semis. Although the fields of gigantic industrial windmills are pretty cool to see. Kind of ominous, really, all of them facing the same way, blades slowly turning … like they’re standing watch.
     Oh! And a word to the wise about Nebraska — careful getting off I-80 through there. Just because the road signs say there’s a gas station or a something off the exit, doesn’t mean that the actual gas station or whatever is actually anywhere within 50 miles of the exit. And if it is, it’s the only damn thing within sight.
     We found that out by pulling off to find a place for lunch. We drove and drove and drove and drove … and finally got a bit nervous and turned around. Actually, we probably only went about ten miles or so, but still.
     And now, we’ve had our breakfast at a Shari’s (with Wi-Fi) just down from our motel (which did not have Wi-Fi), and we’re ready to take off for the day. We’re considering a detour to see the dinosaur graveyard a bit north and west of here, and if we do that, I’ll get pictures for everyone!

We made it through Iowa yesterday — four hundred some-odd miles, and about eight hours of driving. It wasn’t bad — we hit a nasty storm in the afternoon, and I actually had to pull over on the side of I-80 for awhile. The storm itself would probably have been drivable, if it hadn’t been for all the blow-back off the semis. Other than that, there’s not much to report for Iowa. The driving is pretty enough, with all the hills, but it gets hypnotizing after awhile. There’s just nothing but hills and corn, seriously. You get excited when you see some trees.
     We did spot a hotel, Days Inn, I think, square in the middle of a cornfield. No, really. There was no exit off I-80 to get to the hotel, and what looked like a dirt access road going by it, but other than that, it was smack in the middle of a cornfield. No real lawn or anything, just corn. It was bizarre. Jim and I finally decided that the farmer’s cornfield must be so goddamn huge that he had to have a hotel at one end. We also saw a barn-stormer, some guy in a bitty prop plane swooping and diving and rolling over the hills. That was pretty neat.
     Also, a note to the Iowa-Illinois border people around I-80: Guys, you should put some sort of scenic pull-off there by the Mississippi. I’d have liked to stop and have a look when we drove by, but all the exits there went on to other highways. There was no place to stop and sight-see. Poor planning, I think. I mean, I-80′s a major through-fare, and travelers would probably like to stop and gawk. Just saying.
     So far this trip, going by the doggy “if I piddle on it, I own it” rules, Jazz owns my brother’s barn, my Mom’s rug, a rest stop near Lansing, MI, one in Illinois, a Super8 in Morris, IL, a couple of rest stops in Iowa, a Casey’s General store in Adair, IO, and a Quality Inn here in Lincoln. We’ll keep you posted on that.
     Oh, and Colbert’s I Am America (And You Can Too!) was pretty good. We listened to it on CD the last couple of days. We may try Lewis Black’s new one, today.
     (Psst! The pic is from Jim — a shot he snapped in Iowa. He made the poster for me last night. Click to enlarge!)

I picked my Jim up from the local airport this past Friday morning, and commenced a fantastic weekend of going-away parties. Friday night, we had Indian food with Clay and Melisa, and Saturday, my parents threw me a fantastic going-away party. Sunday evening, the crew from the Texan (The Restaurant Where I Worked) threw me a going-away party which devolved into a whip cream fight. We had a blast! Monday, we stopped out and saw my brother’s family, and then had dinner with my folks, then went out to coffee with Clay, Melisa, and Mike. Then we went home and finished packing. Heh.
     The movers showed up at Jesus-thirty AM, and had all my stuff loaded by about twelve. Jim and I ran a few last-minute errands, and then rode off into the sunset.
     Well, drove. And we went east to start with, down I-75, to 69, to 94, which turned into I-80 without any interference from us, of which I approve.
     Jazz was deeply irate with the movers, as Jim and I had allowed strange people into the apartment to steal all her stuff. As if that weren’t indignity enough, we then stuffed her into the Yarr-is, and drove off with her. She was spastic about half the day, and finally started settling down after about an hour of driving. Since then, she’s been abnormally well-behaved. I attribute this to exhaustion. Heh.
     We drove until early evening, finally arriving — without incident — in Morris, Illinois, were we got a room at a nice SuperMotel8. It’s a smoking room, pet-friendly, and has free Wi-Fi, so the day has pretty much been a win all the way around. Jim and I are piddling about on our laptops while Jazz lies comatose behind me on the bed. It’s been a great day.