4,002 Miles: Twice Across the Heartland.

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I haven't owned a car since The Van died in September of '05. I'm still sort of sensitive about it actually,   something Lilly learned last Friday on the way home from the airport. It does mean that, in general, I put in a good deal fewer miles than average behind the wheel. Maybe that's why I didn't really think about how far the 1,000 miles out to Colorado really was. Or what it feels like to ride in a car without an armrest for 18 hours. That wasn't enough to keep me from driving another 1,000 down to Oklahoma the next week though. This time it was with Joanna, and we both had armrests. 

The trip started off really well. My new camera (The Gronk C.) got delivered just before I left Madison, it only took me 2½ hrs(!) to get to Iowa City, and we made successful grilled pizza's in the coach house's backyard. Everything was coming up Barnebey! In the morning we got some McMuffins/McCafes into our systems and headed south—to Leila's Hair Museum. It's pronounced lee-aj-la, and her collection is totally worth $5. Then it was on to the largest shuttlecocks in the world. Turns out they were more than 10 inches tall.

Oklahoma turned out to be 40° warmer than Wisconsin. It also had a baby pug, a one-eyed cat, 2 pools, and slim-to-none fireworks laws. Perfect for America's birthday. Sunday we left for Iowa. It was still a really long drive. And at some point the NOS wore off. Missouri is terrible.

I made it back to Madison on Monday afternoon, but that didn't last long. Jesse was in Milwaukee, and what's another 70 miles among friends? Especially since I could still make it in time for margaritas and BikeTubbing. I did have to return The Eagle in Madison on Tuesday, which meant I had to Badger Bus it back out to The Kee for the Brewer's Game. Just a short detour really.