Outside Alaska- IA

We are trucking right along and hit IA by late afternoon. I am talking on the phone with Brad (hand slap I know) while driving through Des Moines. Now mind you, I am always the passenger or Brad is in the car with me. This is my first time passing through IA without Brad. So we are cruisin right along. I keep asking Zac how much further for our pull off. He keeps telling me the mile marker which is still a ways up the road. We are driving into the darkest, heaviest cloud I have ever seen. I mean I could almost stand on top of the car and touch the sterling black cloud drooping down from the sky. We then hit the rain. And I mean sheets of pressurized water slicing through the sky. It was raining so hard and so fast, semis were pulling off the side of the road. I am looking for an overpass as I am certain we’ve got a tornado sweeping through the corn fields. I pull off as I cannot see and the road has completely disappeared. I call Brad to remind him of my love for IA and the interest I have to participate in a tornado experiment in a match box car. It was raining so hard off the plastic car he could not hear me or I him. That was a great puzzle piece to add to the mix. I finally begin to drive again as the rain has lightened just enough to actually see the center line maybe 5 feet in front of me. This was the case for about 40 miles. Well we lost a lot of time as we could only go 20 mph at best. Next thing you know we are out of it. As quickly as we entered we were out. The sky was bright blue ahead of us with a beautiful double rainbow and a black wall behind us.

Well I pass another mile marker and ask Zac how much further as we should be turning off by now. He again gives me the mile marker for our exit which is still way off considering we have been driving for a while. I pull off the road to look at the map. Come to find out while I was busy talking on the phone to Brad the road I was on forked while I wasn’t paying attention and I had headed 70 miles North when I should have been heading due East. I know I know that’s what I get for talking and driving on the phone, even with hands free. Guess I got a little cocky as I have passed through Des Moines at least a dozen times in the past few years, remember Brad was always there though. So I look at the map and realize I need to back track to make it to his parents. I can either head ALL the way back down to the original interstate 80 or cut through on farm roads which are more scenic. I choose the scenic route. Hello black wall, here we go again.

I have now driven about 800 miles, 2 hours of sleep the night before, 5 shots of coffee and a few Pepsis. I am pinging and hallucinating and reentering the black wall of fiery. We get about half way through the storm when our exit appears. SO we turn off the interstate to begin our travels on 2 lane farm roads. Guess what… the storm is heading due east and we are in the middle of it. Had I known that before I would have gone down to 80. We had the same sheets of rain and black out conditions but now have cars and trucks coming at us inches away. Every time a vehicle would pass the car would get doused with water. We are in such a POS car that the entire car would shake from the force of the water hitting the car. Did I mention the high winds, lack of street lights and no cell phone service???? Fun times or the making of a horror flick, you chose.

We are crawling along, my hands are crushing the steering wheel cuz every time we hit a pocket of water the car wants to hydroplane into the other lane or down into the ditch I can’t see. About another 80 miles of that had me a bit on edge. We make it into Cedar Rapids by 10pm. Yeah, I am familiar with this city, I can get dinner for the kids as they are about to pass out from starvation and I can get right to Brad’s parents with my eyes closed from here. That was BEFORE they had construction and detours into areas I have never driven. And I think the guy who put up the detour signs forgot a few important signs. We finally make our way out of the maze known as Cedar Rapids and find a fast food place that is still open. Remember these are little towns. Being away from them for so long makes me forget how nice some of the folks are. The guy was super sweet. He even gave us a military discount even though the restaurant does not offer one and sent a message of thanks on to Brad. Small town hospitality is AWESOME!!!! We made it to Brad’s parents’ home just after midnight. I am totally fried. I think we ended up going over 200 miles out of our way. That makes over 1000 miles from CO to IA in 1 day. All because I thought I could talk and drive.

Brad’s dad got home from work shortly after I got there and explained that the storm was only a 10 mile wide corridor that headed east. So the entire time we were in the storm I could have dropped down to another farm road (IA is like a grid of farm roads) and I would have had clear skies and smooth sailing. Oh well lesson learned.

We spent the next day with Brad’s family. I got to share our photos from the trip to AK and many more we have. The kids love Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Fresh cookies, baked ham and a 52” TV, they never want to leave. We even got to eat lunch at Happy Joe’s. While eating lunch with Brad’s parents Brad calls to tell me he is deploying to Afghanistan in Jan for at least 4 months. After a few choice words I explain he could have waited to deliver the news as I was driving 600 miles after lunch so I had plenty of time to think about it. It was great timing on his part. I tried stopping in to our friends, the Schwenkers, but they were hanging out in TX while we were there. I’ll catch you next time guys.