Days 2-4 of our fateful journey across the states got progressively better than day 1, with the exception of the hellish drive through South Dakota. No offense to anyone from South Dakota, but based on my 10 or so hours traversing its highways, I’ve officially declared it the worst state in The Union. If I had my way the other 49 states would team up together and kick South Dakota off the team.
Ok… so I’m it’s not that bad of a place to live in, but it did suck to drive through. And it’s not like South Dakotans haven’t been trying either… I’ve got to give it to them; they work pretty hard to make it less miserable for the unlucky travelers who have to pass through, but it’s apparent that they don’t have a lot to work with.
Take this place called Wall Drug for example. We started seeing signs for Wall Drug propped up in the sagebrush about 40 miles ahead of Wall, SD, announcing all sorts of wonder and delight for those who visited. So we stopped by, and here is what we found:
(What the F?)
Props for trying, South Dakota. You’re like the guy that everyone likes to have at the party not because you’re cool, but because you’re really weird and entertainingly awkward. Maybe we’ll keep you on the team after all, but we’ll demote you to a territory and let Puerto Rico take your place in statehood – that way we don’t have to change our flags or anything. I like that…
After South Dakota, we blurred through Minnesota and Wisconsin and then slept in the van in an LDS church parking lot in north Chicago. We spent half the day in Chicago, and saw the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was AWESOME. Chicago is easily my favorite place we’ve visited so far.
After Chicago, we got back on the 80 and drove until we couldn’t drive anymore… which was mid-Pennsylvania, where we finally got a hotel and slept like the dead. I had a dream that my sister in law and my brother (her husband) came to Hawaii to declare the new law that no in the state could watch the TV show LOST, and I chewed them out for being so arrogant as to come over to Hawaii to tell us what to do. Then my sister-in-law got all red in the face and said, “You know what? You can go to hell!…. and back!” which is the point where I said “what the f?” and woke up. She’s really a sweet girl… too much highway driving and Ding Dongs I think…
So after Pennsylvania and the celebration of the fact that it was still legal to watch LOST, we decided on a whim to drive to Washington DC so we could visit K’s dad and his new wife. We arrived around rush hour, and then proceeded to spend the next 2.5 hours stuck in traffic, although we managed to snap shots of the Capitol, the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and George Washington’s manly monument of manliness, all while being pushed along at 1 MPH through traffic. Needless to say, DC is cool, but not at the top of my list of the funnest places on our trip. Chicago still wins the “it should be its own state” award, and South Dakota still wins the “let’s give you some money to build a theme park or something” award.
Soon, our grand tour of the northern hemisphere of the United States will be complete, as we hit up New York (our soon to be new home) tomorrow, and Boston on Tuesday for Warped Tour.
