Days 3 and 4: Driving Through the "Fly Over States"

"They've never drove through Indiana,
Met the men who plowed that earth,
Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me,
Or caught a harvest moon in Kansas,
They'd understand why God made those fly over states."

-"Fly Over States" by Jason Aldean

Days Three and Four of our cross-country adventure involved a LOT of driving!  We crossed the border of five new states during these two days on the road and drove over 1,200 miles!  Kerri actually got to drive some of those miles, too, and RJ was a very good passenger.  Covering just over 600 miles on Day Three got us to Kansas City, MO for a night at the La Quinta Blue Springs, which was affordable, super comfortable, and provided a fantastic breakfast!  Not to mention, it was an extremely dog-friendly hotel, and there were a LOT of people traveling with their furry friends, which made us a little wistful for our own four-legged best friend who is at home with Bob, Michele, Cody, and Rylee

One of our goals for this trip was to try to get off the beaten path at least a little bit in as many states as possible so we could feel like we really visited those states and didn't just pass through from rest area to rest area on the highway.  We started Day Three - our first long day of travel - abiding by this rule, and we were met with a good omen!  While our stay outside of Dayton left a little to be desired in the way of our hotel, Kerri still made good on her goal to try and stick to a running schedule as often as possible.  Turns out the town we were just outside of had a little Main Street with a good, local coffee shop that Kerri discovered while running!  We made Lefty's Eats and Espresso our breakfast stop before hitting the road.  Not only was the coffee excellent and the breakfast sandwiches on fresh, local bread delicious, but the owner's personal Pandora station sounded an awful lot like our own, and O.A.R.'s "Crazy Game of Poker" was the second song that played after we walked in the door!  We took that as a great omen for our first long day on the road!  

While RJ was driving, Kerri started searching the web for things we could do in Indiana - our next state - that would allow us to see a little bit of the state without sucking up too much of our time.  We've been using the app/website Roadtrippers to plan out our trip, and we were excited to find a Roadtrippers "trip" that would allow us to discover some neat new places: "Your Road Trip Guide to Every Awesome Detour off I-70."  Thank you so much to whoever created this guide!  After looking at the options for Indiana, we decided to stop at Cataract Falls (photos above and below), which is southwest of Indianapolis.  We got really lucky with our stops on these days, because storms were passing through all day.  We hit our first big storm in Indianapolis, but by the time we were ready to get off at the exit for the falls, the sun was back out and it was beautiful.  This was a great little stop to stretch our legs and take some pretty pictures.  We did have to pay $7 to get in, which I didn't realize from the guide, but I'm sure they appreciate and make good use of the admission fee to keep the area as nice as it is. 

After our stop at the falls, we were ready for lunch.  A search on Google Maps and reading a few reviews led us to Cook's Corner in Poland, Indiana.  The review that intrigued me most was one that said it is a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall type place if you like that sort of thing...and we do!  It was exactly that.  A very small, simple restaurant in the middle of what looked like a nearly deserted town.  It reminded both of us of "Mary's Lunch" in Mahanoy City, which we both enjoyed when we were kids!  Simple menu, simple food, made well by local people.  It also took us a little further into the countryside of Illinois, and we ended up on some fantastic, twisty, country roads, which are the kind of roads a Miata is meant for; it really broke up a lot of time on the straight, flat highways of the midwestern states. 

Our second great stop off the highway for Day Three was to see the Kaskaskia Dragon in Vandalia, Illinois.  This is definitely one of those silly little kitschy tourist traps, but it was well worth the stop and the dollar.  You can't see the dragon from the Interstate, but it sits right along the main road off the Interstate, which is a busy area full of gas stations and restaurants for travelers.  There is a liquor store across the street from the dragon, and you can go in there and buy a token for $1 to make the dragon breathe fire for about 12 seconds.  It's silly, but it's fun, and it's so conveniently located that we were also able to pick up a shake at Sonic to beat the heat without losing much time - it was in the 90s and we were getting hot in our little convertible!  

We crossed the Mississippi just as another round of nasty storms was rolling in.  There was a tornado warning south of us, as you can see on the radar picture above.  Traffic slowed down significantly, and we had lot of rain and some nasty lightning, but otherwise it wasn't terrible.  

After the storms passed, we stopped at a Waffle House in Missouri for dinner.  Don't judge! Kerri has always wanted to eat at a Waffle House, and after we saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown where Anthony was introduced to a Waffle House and was pleasantly surprised, we had to finally check one out.  RJ had the cheese and eggs and hash browns with everything, and Kerri had the pecan waffle, and it was delicious, cheap, long day on the road food.  And while it was as seedy as probably every Waffle House in America is, everyone in there was super friendly.  

After a decent breakfast and a good amount of hydrating at our LaQuinta hotel, we hit the road fairly early to make tracks for Colorado.  We crossed the border into Kansas pretty quickly.  Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas are located right next to each other, separated by the border.  Apparently, a lot of people think it is one city split in half, but it is not.  They are two independent cities.  Soon after we entered Kansas, we started seeing signs for the town of Salina (it was over 100 miles away at that point).  One of Kerri's favorite children's literature books - Savvy by Ingrid Law - references the town of Salina, Kansas frequently because it's the town in Kansas where the main characters are trying to get to.  The Salina exit was one of few that had a substantial exit to get off and refuel, so we did, and while RJ was pumping gas, Kerri found a local coffee shop that was just a five minute drive down the road.  We decided to give it a try, and it was a fabulous stop!  The coffee shop is also a used book store, which made for great atmosphere.  The coffee was delicious, and the iced beverages hit the spot as the temperature outside was climbing through the 90s.  They had some homemade baked goods that were delicious as well, and RJ was delighted by a flyer on the community bulletin board for a missing Velociraptor.  You've got to love a town that keeps it weird!  

We were both surprised by the first half of our drive through Kansas.  There were more rolling hills than we expected.  The landscape was beautiful.  We saw a lot of windmills and oil/gas fields and farmland, but no wheat, which was a surprise.  The second half of the drive through Kansas started to drag, though, as the roads got straighter and straighter and flatter and flatter, and the heat was up to 105 outside.  It was too hot to enjoy the convertible, so we rode with the air conditioning cranked up and the roof on.  We were relieved to enter Colorado, but surprised to learn that it takes a while for Colorado to look like what you'd expect. Colorado was just as flat and straight as Kansas for the first hour or so, but with more potholes and fewer rest areas. In fact, we were glad we stopped for gas before leaving Kansas, because the advertised rest area forty miles over the Colorado border didn't seem to exist at all!  About 30-40 miles from Denver, we finally found a substantial exit with multiple options for fueling up, and that was right about the time you could first see the Rocky Mountains in the distance.  Apparently, they are a little more obscured than normal right now because there are several wildfires burning in the mountains and the smoke spreads out through the thin mountain air.  

After a couple more hours on the road and dinner at Denver's The Berkshire - featured on the Food Network show Food Paradise - we were climbing those mountains to get to our hotel in Central City, Colorado.  Turns out Central City is an old gold mining town that has been reinvented as a casino town.  There was some great mountain road driving to be done on the way to our hotel and beautiful sights to see.  The sun was setting over the mountains, and the light was reflecting brilliantly from the windows of the beautiful mountain cabins.  

We got checked into our room at the Grand Z casino in Central City.  We quickly learned that other than the casinos there isn't much else to do there on a weeknight, so we decided to check out the casino floor. Kerri played ten dollars and won $109 on her second play.  Time to cash out and call it a night!  Another good omen to end our two long days on the road!  We were exhausted from all of our driving and extra tired from changing two time zones in two days.  We were ready to call it a night and get some rest so we could enjoy the next four full days in Colorado!