A Drive to Midwestia

Last week Olivia and I embarked on a drive to the Midwest; Olivia decided she was going to get a PhD at Southern Illinois University so assisted in her moving endeavors. Olivia picked me up in Logan with a U-haul full of books and plenty of tunes on her ipod. We drove out via Logan Canyon (where the engine overheated), past Bear Lake (where the breaks overheated), through southern Wyoming (more overheating), into Nebraska (flat), down through northeast Kansas (beautiful), across Missouri (things were a blur by then), and ended up in Murphysboro Illinois. The thing that amazed me most about the trip was the ability that Olivia and I have to walk into a restaurant and without consulting each other pick out the same item on the menu.

Overall I really liked Illinois. My favorite features include: Olivia's house, her new black cat named Rorschach, the nice town folk, lush vegetation, all the old churches, the random tornado paths, fireflies, corn, and the local grocery stores called Schnucks. A few problems I have with Illinois are: humidity, cigarette consumption, and lush vegetation. The vegetation, although pretty is a cruel joke. You can't really go tromping though the bushes as they are laced with Poison Ivy, ticks, chiggers, big spiders, and the elusive water moccasin. We did manage a hike but stayed on the trail; which is a bit of a new concept.

Thanks to Joe for watching Ari and K-So while I embarked on this journey.

I have a few photos from the trip, but Olivia has more. Her thoughts on the trip along with a photo from each state can be found on HERE on her blog.

Olivia watching the sunset through the tress on a hike in Giant City State Park IL. I'm pretty sure they named it Giant City because of all the giant spiders.

This photo was taken in Saint Louis MO under the arch. I found the stairs just as exciting as the giant random arch.

This photo is entitled "all that Saint Louis has to offer". Here we have the arch, a statue of Louis and Clark with their dog Seaman, the Mississippi River, and a Tom Sawyer days type boat in the distance...I guess really this photos needs to have Busch Stadium to be complete; but can't say I'm much of a baseball fan anyway (I didn't say that while in Midwestia, they take their baseball seriously there).