SLC, UT to Indianapolis, IN - Day 47 on the road

We left Salt Lake City getting ready for our over 1500 mile journey through Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa; full of flat land and wheat and corn fields. Oh, and cows…

We’ve done the Great Plains drive on two other occasions on our Road trip out west back in 2002, but on I-90 heading west through South Dakota and Wyoming, and on I-70 heading east through Kansas and Colorado. I-90 was a good drive and South Dakota and Northern Wyoming had a lot to offer as far as scenery and things to do. I-70 was just as nice, with the Red rock Arches NP in Utah on the way to Colorado, and greener fields through Kansas. I-80 is kind of blah all the way through Wyoming. After playing Oregon Trail back in grade-school, we were looking for Chimney Rock – but by the time we found it – we had already passed (I hear its smaller than you think – so go to Arches NP if you want to see amazing red rock formations.

Actually – the best scenic ride would have to be from Badlands, SD to Yellowstone – south through the Teton Range to Bear Lake, Utah – then to Arches NP to hit I-70 through Aspens green mountains in Colorado. We have photos from that trip as well – and I will post them within a few days of getting back to Rochester on July 29th. Also check out our 2004 Newfoundland road trip pictures that are on our current site as well as the route that we took.

We spent a night in North Platte, Nebraska on the way to Iowa, stopping in Lincoln to visit the University of Nebraska. This school was massive with two campuses’, one in the city and the other eastern campus filled with large courtyards, much like Rochester’s Rochester Institute of Technology; but with less brick. We also visited Des Moines, Iowa briefly – but it wasn’t much of a tourist town. Iowa however, was wonderful to drive though compared to Nebraska, with greater variation in the land that we were driving through; also known as the “Land of the Tall Corn”. Davenport Iowa was a nice little city as well, located on the Mississippi and known as QUAD CITY, sharing the name with Bettendorf, Rock Island and Moline; http://www.quadcities.com/. It was pretty nice there, with casino boats on each side of the river – we visited the one in Davenport and lost five bucks…and ran into folks in the casino that were young at heart, playing their penny slot games with smiles from ear to ear as the music chimed to their winnings.

After a quick stop in Peoria, Illinois for an iced mocha from Portland Roasting Coffee. With a $10 minimum on cards and having no cash on me, the kind bistro server gave me my coffee on the house – THANKS AGAIN!! – and with it being 93 degrees outside, it was the best tasting iced mocha I’ve ever had; putting on shorts this morning instead of pants would have been nice too…

Thanks to Dan Agnew, from Rochester, we got a tip that Bob Lonsberry on 1180 WHAM was looking for ideas for road trips on his show. We called in and were able to get on the air for a good 20-30 minute conversation about our journey from Rochester to Alaska and back. To the listeners that heard us this afternoon, thanks again for the comments! We are happy to hear from you – feel free to tell your friends and family, even though our trip is almost complete, this site will be continually updated in the coming months with even better organization and fluidity within the site.

We are on the air again tomorrow around 11:30AM EST to further discuss our travels. Listeners may even be able to call in and ask us questions. Visit the site on our homepage to find the streaming connection to 1180 WHAM. And thanks again to Bob Lonsberry, 1180 WHAM, and Clear Channel for this opportunity! I would also like to thank RNEWS and Kris Dreessen from Messenger Post News for doing articles on our trip before we left Rochester on June 10th.

We will be in Indianapolis tonight visiting Bryan’s friend Sarah that he met in Germany while studying abroad at the Richmond University – The American International University in London back in 2005.

Keep posted as we update some pictures and videos tonight and tomorrow morning.

Cheers!

Matt & Bryan