When They Say "Flat," They Really Do Mean FLAT

The long day of driving from Ohio to Illinois was punctuated by a sudden flat, open plain, and dead-stopped traffic just outside of Chicago.

Documentation of the stunning landscape:

Documentation of the crawling traffic:

Yep, that's Christie and Matt on the walkie, with their car stereo synced to ours, singing "Killing Me Softly." I must credit Matt with the idea - it passed the time brilliantly until we decided to exit and take an interstate bypass through the Illinois cornfields.

The rest of the ride was thankfully uneventful, just some pensiveness and cute self-taken shots.

Our arrival at Jared's Aunt Kim's was amazing - hugs all around, and by this time we had dealt with the animals often enough that we had a smooth system for minimal host alarm.

I am still grappling with the fact that Jared's family was the most generous, hospitable group of people I've come across. Aunt Kim fed us Tenderloins - the mid-Illinois specialty of pounded pork (appx. 8 inches in diameter) on a bun (4 inches in diameter), and explained her incredible, genius coupon clipping system. After an ominous rainstorm, Aunt Kari cooked up a storm of deliciousness for our "surprise" engagement party (which had an incredible turnout, to Kim's credit). The dogs tangled their leashes all day in the soppy backyard, but by sundown the sky was clear and everyone was enjoying themselves.

We posed for lots of photos, and Jared decided to puff his chest with his hand on his hip. Then I pointed it out to him and he stopped, unfortunately. Next time I'll keep the observation to myself for posterity's sake.

It was a fantastic party - we were sad to say goodbye to such wonderful people. Below, Jared with his Grandma Bumgarner and Aunts, Kim and Kari.

We hit the road on Friday and then stopped so I could take a phone interview for a research position in Portland (fingers crossed).

Then we got back in the car, settled into the ride, and I realized I had forgotten to pee in my interview excitement, so we stopped again. Then we stopped for some caffeine to snap out of the wow-this-terrain-is-flat daze. But then Iowa was brilliant in a hazy, misty, rolling hills sort of way. Then we stopped again to wake up from the rain-on-the-windshield-daze. But in the last stretch, just as the rain was letting up, we came upon miles and miles of windmills. I'm not talking cute little windmills on the horizon, I'm talking mammoth, gorgeous, virtually silent propellers elevated like Redwood branches into the clouds. I'm offering a photo that Jared took, but he's going to add a video that puts even the photo to shame.

The clouds cleared to reveal a celestial sky, fitting as we descended on Amanda Boone's Lincoln, NE. And here we are, in a coffee shop in hip Lincoln, after a brilliantly relaxing day of movies, touring the city and luscious dinner yesterday.

I'm enjoying the midwest so much more than I ever thought possible! Between the incredible flat vistas, neat coffee shops and farmers markets, I'm seriously considering a future in the flatlands.

Over and out for now.