Anyways, I am on my way to Tempe, AZ to visit my boyfriend. Yay for long-distance relationships! Once I am done with school though, we will move in together, and I finish in May, so it's not too long of a wait. However, I have been given the opportunity to drive west again, something that I have not done in about 8 years.
I left Minneapolis around 12pm with the truck loaded up and filled up with 36 gallons of diesel, and started on my journey. I used to not look forward to driving through Iowa until earlier this year when I had started seeing someone in Ames. We are the best of friends to this day and it felt kind of awkward to keep driving past his exit and not stop to see him (he was at work anyways, so even to grab a bite or a cup of coffee would have been out of the question!). A phone call would suffice but we plan on grabbing dinner or something on my return trip.
Okay, so why a pic of a wind farm in IA? Well, I figured I would snap this shot since in my chemistry class, we have been talking about alternative energy sources, and wind energy is something that has been brought up on many occasions. Plus, they are kind of cool to see.
After heading into Des Moines, I headed west-ward into Nebraska. Longest drive of my life (no offense to any Nebraska-dwellers, but seriously, 7 hours in one state...). Pretty uneventful other than smelling manure at various places along the way. Stopped in Kearney for dinner, which was Quizno's, yum.
The truck was clean when I left Minneapolis! Hit some rain in Iowa. After trudging along through Nebraska, hit the Colorado boarder at around 9:45pm. It was odd seeing snow on the ground again. I thought I left it all behind in MN(even though it's mostly melted back home)! I guess Denver got hit with some snow a few days ago. I saw more than a few cars off road, stuck in snow banks. Actually, as we got out of Denver, heading south on I-25, we saw a Jeep flipped over in the middle of the freeway. I wanted to grab my camera and take a pic, but figured the authorities on the scene wouldn't appreciate it, so I kept on going. Driving through the foothills at night was still very beautiful. On the return trip, I should be passing through during the day so I will take some pics.
Filling up at a Love's somewhere in Colorado, I think just outside of Denver. Yeah, no artsy shots of the truck. I don't feel like finding a nice spot to snap a pic since I am trying to make decent time to AZ. So far the truck has been doing great, averaging about 16.5-17.5mpg cruising at 75-80mph. Not too bad for a bolt-ons 6.0 Powerstroke.
Okay, so why the pic of a MicroFridge? Another school related thing. Just finished a case study for my ENTR 450 class on the MicroFridge company, then I see it at the hotel I stopped at for the night. Kind of cool, I guess.
Well, that's it for now. It's 4am and I am waking up at 8:30am to hit the road by 9 so I can get to AZ at a reasonable time. I still have a 6 page essay to type for school that needs to be emailed to my professor by 4pm on Friday. That should turn out to be an interesting read after driving for another 10 hours on minimal sleep, written the night before it's due. Oh well, c'est la vie. Stay tuned for Part II when I arrive in AZ.
From the view of an author, I really like the pictures with the truck taken from the same angle each time, especially because they tell an almost-separate story outside of the travelogue. I think that people traveling might be able to use photographs in this manner that would provide a second set of media to supplement the timeline. Truck, moving through time and space.
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