Well our proposed ten-hour drive turned into a thirteen-hour drive (a new record for us). To add insult to injury, Iowa is a series of foothills…..rolling up and down, on and on for hundreds of miles. Each time I would have to climb one of these hills the speed of the truck would duck down to 65, 60, 55, 50, 45 mph (get the picture). It was bad. Oh yeah, and there was something like a constant 30-40 mph head wind that kept knocking the truck all over the place. Not fun! In fact, this truck has been banged around so much that I’d be surprised if the majority of our belongings haven’t been pulverized by all the vibrations and jolts sustained throughout the trip.

But there is more to Iowa than just endlessly rolling foothills. It is also the home of the “Worlds Largest Truckstop” a.k.a “Iowa 80.” An interesting thing about this trip is that our journey marks two firsts for me: the first time I’ve driven a diesel powered vehicle and the first time I’ve driven a legitimate “truck” (vs. a box van). There is a whole “trucker” counter-culture that I was never aware of. These guys may look pretty gruff, but they are friendly, sociable and accomodating. They’re never short on stories and are happy to hold the door open for you as you enter a truck-stop. They are the back-bone of the supply chain of this country……something that I never thought of appreciating before, but I do now.

After Iowa came Nebraska, and I don’t have much to share about that since we arrived in the state of “Warren Buffet” under the cover of darkness. However, its considerably flatter than Iowa (read: easier to drive in), but also more boring (akin to its southern cousin, Kansas). The cool thing about Lexington, Nebraska, is that it is 4-5 hours from our destination! We are so excited to begin our new life in Colorado and now we can almost taste it! With any luck, my next post will be from our new digs!

• moving to colorado
• relocating