I just got into town and I’ve got yet another hotel room without internet access. Fortunately, there was a Kinko’s down the street so I was able to check my email for 20 cents per minute…that was some of the fastest emailing that I’ve ever done : - )
Today was a monster of a day on the road and, to paraphrase Jay-Z, I was focused, man. Mapquest told me that I was looking at a 9 hour and 21 minute drive, so I decided last night that I was going to do everything I could to beat that estimate. As such, I was going to just go straight through from Des Moines to Cheyenne with no stops except to get gas, use the restroom, and a single stop to get a post card for one of my sisters in Nebraska (she’d asked me to get one in every state I hit, but I didn’t remember until I hit Iowa). I’m glad that the hotel offered a free continental breakfast because that let me fill up early and I’d even grabbed an extra bagel, which became my lunch on the road. After leaving Des Moines, I had to go through about 100 miles more of Iowa before hitting Nebraska and that’s where it got hard.
I’m seriously beefin’ with Nebraska right now because that state is wack to drive through. Let me start with the good though…Omaha was pretty decent to drive through and had two of the best urban stations that I’ve heard since starting this trip. Other than that, driving through Nebraska was mental torture. Soon after leaving Omaha, I hit Lincoln, NE, which is the home of the University of Nebraska, and I can now understand why that school’s mascot is The Cornhusker…there is nothing but a bunch of cornfields there. In fact, there was one cornfield that stretched for a whole mile and I’m not exaggerating…it went on for a solid mile. For the 5-6 hours that I was in Nebraska after leaving Omaha, there were no urban radio stations and 2 or 3 top-40 stations, so it was all about listening to my CDs. Here are some of the highlights of today on the road:
1. In Omaha, I was driving at ~86 mph in a 75mph zone and I looked down at my cellie to make a call. When I looked back up, I saw a Nebraska State Trooper in my rearview mirror with his lights flashing. My immediate thought was “Dang, I’ve got to add the cost of a ticket to the overall cost of this trip” and I started pulling onto the left shoulder to get my ticket. Then, to my surprise, the cop went around me and kept on flying up the road. He must have been responding to an emergency and I dodged a bullet.
2. Because Route 80 West is basically straight and wide-open road through Nebraska, it invites fast driving and the fact that there were no other cops on the entire route through the state allowed me to floor it. I actually broke 90 mph for the first time in my life today and took a picture of the speedometer with my digital camera to mark the moment (yeah, I was REALLY bored on the road).
3. While I was driving, I had to keep myself entertained to stay awake and that included singing along with the music I had blasting on my stereo from my CDs. At one point, I took it back to the ol’ school and had The Rude Boys’ “Written all over your face” playing. Y’all remember the part toward the middle of the song where Gerald Levert breaks it down, right? Well, I was behind the wheel breaking it down singing along...I’m talkin’ body rocking, head nodding side to side, and singing to the top of my lungs. Then, I looked over to my right and saw a couple of kids staring at me from the backseat of their car like I was crazy. Normally I would have been embarrassed, but that just gave me more motivation to keep performing for them…I hope they liked the show.
4. About 4 hours into Nebraska, I started driving with my wifebeater on so I could get more comfortable and, soon after, Lil Jon’s “Get Low” came on the stereo. THAT IS MY JOINT, so I started getting good and crunk in my car. I was screaming “To ‘da windows….to ‘da walls” at the top of my lungs, dancing back and forth in the driver’s seat, throwin’ bows, and even droppin’ it like it’s hot (as much as I could while driving). About halfway through the song, I looked out one of my side windows and I saw an older white lady looking at me in horror like she’d never seen any one dance to Lil Jon before (given that it was the middle of Nebraska, she probably hadn’t). So, I did what any young man in my position would do…I gave her the Lil’ Scrappy mad dog screwface and sped off…O-KAY-KAY-KAY!!! : - )
Aight, y’all. The pizza delivery man just got here so I’ve got to go pay for my dinner. I’ll write more tomorrow night from Elko, NV.