Construction

It is everywhere! Its amazing really the amount of construction on every major interstate it the country. All the traffic we hit while trying to escape the east coast...construction traffic. Interstate 70 and 80 were down to one lane at points. One lane! On a Friday! What a brilliant idea...Brilliant! This is my third time driving cross country in three years and many of the same sections are still "under construction" and by under construction I mean 14 mile streches of highway lined with cones. I tell you what, the orange cone and refector industry must be booming! It takes alot of cones to line the majority of every major highway in the country!

After an exciting day of travel it was time to settle down for a good nights rest...at a reststop somewhere in podunk Indiana.

Tip: For long car trips recline seats before packing, otherwise you will be sleeping sitting straight up...not so comfortable.

Indianas roads are a pain to drive, besides the construction, not all highways have exits in both directions! Which is how we ended up heading north to Chicago instead of west to Peoria, Illinois. Oh, and northern Indiana has the wonderful aroma of burnt asphalt covered in rotten eggs and poo.

Illinois is pretty bad as well and none of the exits tell you if there is gas or food...which led us on a wild goose chase on E to find a gas station. When we finally did lightening struck a transformer across the street (what a sweet explosion) knocking out all the power. Why I never bring an extra gallon of gas is beyond me.

Tip: Illinois has tolls on the highway around chicago every 10 miles or so ranging from .80 to 1.60 and then you pay. 50 or so at every exit. So always bring a big pocket full of change because not all tolls have attendants so your fucked if you don't have .50 cents!

We finally reached Wisconsin and it is everything I ever dreamed it could be (I dream about cheese). It was hard to control my cheese urges everytime we passed a cheese house so I didnt end up with 10lbs of rotting cheese in the trunk. By now were on interstate 90 which is less traveled and has less construction. Vast wide open fields of corn and soy beans line both sides of the highway. It is stunning in a bread basket home grown kinda way.

Time to finish my coffee and hit the wide open road.