The trip continues...

I'm back for another installment of the cross county trip. We'll travel through four more states in this post.

Ohio

TRIVIA! What is John's least favorite state? This one is easy, it's Ohio! I don't have one good thing to say about this state. I already knew what a shithole it was from my previous job. I was in charge of websites for 8 Ohio Newspapers . I got to read news from these various cities in Ohio every day. It's some of the most depressing news you'll ever read. Not only do they lead the nation in suicides but I would be shocked based on what I've read if they didn't lead the nation in child molestation as well. We stopped a couple times on our way through the state. The first stop was at a gas station, the second was at Wendy's (I was convinced I was going to get some rare fungus or infection after eating there). Louie and I couldn't believe the people we were looking at each time we stopped. It looked like it was still the 80's. You talk about white trash! Holy crap! It was so depressing to sit amongst these people and wonder what their lives must be like. I don't know where we were when I said this to Louie but I said "these people don't know any other way of life so maybe they're happy." You just think about how much they miss out on living where they do. I'm done with Ohio. I never want to go back. And yes, I have been to major cities in Ohio too. I've been to Cincinnati twice and spent several days there. It sucks! Ohio sucks! ANIMALS!

Indiana

Oh thank god! We're out of Ohio. OK, I'm really done with Ohio now. Indiana doesn't have much to offer as far as I can tell. This is point in the trip when every state started to look similar. A lot of nothing with small towns mixed in. Tons of farms. This was probably the most interesting state we passed through though for a couple of reasons. We're driving down the highway, it's getting close to 6 p.m. on Saturday night. We notice traffic slowing down up ahead and then we see tons of flashing lights everywhere. As we get closer I notice a lot of county vehicles, phone company trucks, police, and EMT. Then, all of a sudden we see houses torn apart. Some ripped right off of their foundations. I realized that I was witnessing the aftermath of a tornado for the first time in my life. It was one of the most shocking things I've ever seen. It's totally different seeing it in person versus on TV. Needless to say, it really put a damper on the mood for a while. Seeing that just makes me glad that I vowed to lived natural disaster free a long time ago. I would never live in a state where you're constantly under the threat of a natural disaster. After we got through the tornado traffic we realized that the Final Four was starting and we were within 10 minutes of Indianapolis. Had we not committed to such an aggressive driving schedule I'm sure we would have been tempted to stay the night there and tried to score tickets to the games. That's all I've got for Indiana.

Illinois

Come on feel the Illinois! Sadly, I have absolutely nothing to say about our time spent driving through Illinois. Farm... lots of nothing... small city... farm... nothing...

Missouri

Did Missouri show me? You'll have to keep reading to find out. Please remember, it's still Saturday! This is where I started to wear down. I drove for a little while in Missouri and then Louie took over as I passed out in the passenger seat. I remember waking up at point as Louie commented on fireworks going off everywhere. I don't know what is so special about April 1st in Missouri or the part of Missouri we were in but they love some fireworks. Our Saturday trip finally ended in Springfield around 11:00 p.m. with over 1,100 miles behind us. I honestly don't remember what hotel we stayed in. We weren't there long, I know that. We got up on Sunday around 8 a.m. and checked out. We ate breakfast at Shoney's (one of my fav's) before we hit the road. BREAKFAST BAR! I was wearing my Fugazi t-shirt. Our waitress walked up, looked at it, and said "I don't even know how to prounounce that." It was funny. I felt much more comfortable here than I did in that Wendy's back in Ohio.

Next episode: We start back up in Missouri and then hit Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.