Day 2 -- Elkhart, IN to Des Moines, IA

Last night my mom and I headed out in the snow and cold to Texas Roadhouse for a quick dinner and then celebrated Hanukkah (of course...she wouldn't forget to bring the tiny travel menorah!!!). We played dredel and this time we played for little pieces of paper that had things like, "lunch", "tolls", "coffee", "gas" on them and whoever ended up with the most pieces lost, of course, because whatever pieces we ended up with were what we payed for the next day. I was happy because I ended up with "drive first", "a surprise", "tolls", and "dinner"...she had the rest! ;)

This morning it was snowing in IN and it was awful to drive in! I have driven in snow before but from IN to IL it was very windy and the snow was being blown around like mini tornadoes. I kept both hands of the wheel and made my mom shush so that I could concentrate and not get us killed. I was only able to go 45-55 miles per hour so it took us longer to get to IA than planned. Every 10 miles or so we saw abandoned cars or cars that were overturned or cars that just got off the road to rest...it was freaky and I just wanted to keep driving until we reached a calmer destination. I drove from about 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then finally gave the wheel to my mom. By this time, my eyes were very tired and I was ready to give them a break from white (snow) and lines (road). Lucky her, the snow stopped when it was her turn! Go figure!!!!

Finally, around 3 p.m. we made it to Des Moines. This hotel is very nice...there's a waterfall in the lobby and elevators that look out onto the lobby. It's very open and has everything we could want. We are in a suite and are living the good life ;). We decided to work out (me) and swim (my mom) before showering and dinner. After walking around the side of town that had cute shops and restaurants (East side) we came to the conclusion that no one was out and that we should find somewhere else to eat. There were many gay/lesbian flags around town though but nothing seemed very busy...I guess I'll have to take my mom to a lesbian bar in Boulder. ;)

I'm currently full, very tired, and ready to just relax and fall to sleep. I am so glad we made it through the "storm" and are safe. I am very proud of myself for taking it slow on the roads and for making myself drive even if I didn't enjoy the conditions.

Tomorrow is the last day of driving on this road trip and I'm very excited for that! Let's hope that this midwest storm holds off for another day and we have a safe and fun trip tomorrow!!! Let's also hope that if we play the same dredel game, I don't get "drive first" again!

Thoughts from:
IN and IL -- everything was so white! We stopped at the worlds largest Truck stop for lunch! Drove past Chicago and thought about how I was there last year around this time.
IA -- pretty flat, lots of farms, many cows were out grazing, the city is very nice and the free happy hour at the hotel rocks! :)