Driving & Baby

I'm glad I left a day late. Most of the ice storms I missed, they were West of me on Saturday, and East of me by Sunday, so lucked out. I did, however, end up in some pretty bad weather (lots of snow) in Iowa, but I'm just glad I managed to avoid the ice. This meant that I didn't get very far on the first day (Sunday), only to Des Moines, so I ended up getting a hotel room there. The first part of the drive (through Michigan) was pretty bad, but mostly just rain. After that, all of Indiana and Illinois had looked just fine and dry. But pretty much my entire time in Iowa was marked by increasingly bad weather. It started off with a little bit of drizzle, then turned to rain, and then full-blown snow. By the time traffic was moving at less than 20 miles per hour (minder dan 32 km per uur) I thought to myself, it's just not worth driving anymore. So, I checked into the local Best Western, grabbed a dinner at "the Diner", and called it an early night.

This morning (Monday), I got up around 6.30am local time, and got on the road around 7.15. The first hour, the road was still quite bad (they got about 8 inches [20 cm] of snow overnight), and I only managed to drive around 35 miles (om en nabij de 55km), but after that things got slightly better. Pretty much as soon as I got out of Iowa, and passed Omaha, Nebraska, things were looking up! Speed limit here was 75mph (120km/h), which is the highest I've ever seen in the U.S. Though, the drive through Nebraska made me wonder one thing: what's the point of this state? Seriously! The only goal it appears to serve is, well, to make my drive longer. OK, in their defense, their roads are fine and I already mentioned the high speed limit, but... other than the pitch black cows along the way and some buffalo (I think), I don't see why this state should be around, necessarily.

After entering Colorado I was expecting to see a ton of mountains right away, but it turns out, Colorado is pretty much flat up until you hit the big cities (Denver / Boulder), and just West of there is where the mountains start. My friends Andy and Jessica also live pretty much on the edge of these mountains, just north of the two major cities, with their daughter Natalie. I got to their place just in time for dinner, after a beautiful sunset behind the Rocky Mountains in the west, and so I thoroughly enjoyed my last real homecooked meal that I'm expecting for the next three months (thanks Jessica!!). After dinner (well, and during), it was baby time, and Natalie was showing off how many words she already knows, how well she can walk, and how well she can play her toy piano... and she's only 16 months old!!! She's absolutely adorable (not that there was any doubt with Andy and Jessica's genes!), and a very busy little bee. After watching the Golden Globes (Borat won Best Actor... anyone else shocked by this? Loved his speech b.t.w.!), we were off to bed, but I wanted to write this note now while I was near a computer. Tomorrow I'll be driving to Arches National Park in the morning, and after that Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. I probably won't be able to update until after Las Vegas, when I'm at Trey's place in LA, so I figured I'd add just a few pics here. My phone still works till January 23rd so call me on the road, I'd love the 'company'!!