Trippin'

A lot of folks I spoke to in the run-up to my cross-country car trip expressed surprise and even concern that my daughter and I were making the run from Leesburg, VA to Boulder, CO. I confess to being a bit confused by this reaction. I get to spend three days alone with my kid and see parts of the country we'd never seen? Cool! Sign me up.

Maybe I'd have gone for one of those fancy Sprinter vans or something, instead of a 2013 Hyundai Elantra with 142,000 miles and a non-functioning driver's side sun visor, but that's just a quibble. "Jean", as the car is known, was a champ. And so was my kid.

Here's the way it went down:

Leg One: Leesburg, VA to South Bend, IN

This was the longest of our three legs, weighing in at 569 miles. The costliest, too, as the EZPass folks stung us for $32.42. We hit the road at 6:24 am, looking sprightly, though my kid slept for the first three hours because she has a habit of not sleeping if she has an early wakeup call.

We took Route 15 to Route 70/76, passing through a little bit of Virginia before traveling across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio before entering Indiana. Made our first stop at a rest area just over the Pennsylvania border in Ohio for gas and a wee potty break.

We stopped for lunch at 1:08 at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of Ohio. It was under construction, and the only fresh food option was Hardees. I settled for a packaged turkey and cheese sammich, because Hardees. Grabbed some spicy pickle chips, too, and proceeded to spill most of the juice on myself. Pretty disappointing effort.

The kidlet drove the rest of the way, and we caught some pretty heavy rain entering South Bend. Put a serious kibosh on our plans (my plans, really - the kid would've been happy to vegetate in the hotel room) to wander the Notre Dame campus. I've got some letters to write, because my daughter was nonplussed with the road conditions in Ohio. 

Hampton Inn, bringing the funny

We arrived at 3:51, a total elapsed time of 10:17, including three stops.

For entertainment, we listened to a playlist I made, then a chill country-ish playlist of my daughter's making, and a punk/emo vibe to bring us into town. We supped at O'Rourke's (it's a solid Irish pub) in the shadow of Notre Dame stadium, then toured the athletic campus (My Lord in Heaven, but their football practice facility is absurd) in a futile attempt to roll up to Touchdown Jesus. We could see him, but we couldn't figure out how to get close. The Lord, it seems, had forsaken us.

Leg Two: South Bend, IN to Omaha, NE

We got up to watch the second half of the USWNT/Sweden match, and jumped in the car at the end of regulation so we could listen to the rest, hitting the road at 7:08 am after a stop at Biggby for coffee and iced chai. We heard to the overtime/shootout in a driving rainstorm that let up about when we crossed over into Illinois.

If we didn't want to, we could've made the entire trip without taking a turn, once we left South Bend. We took 80 West the whole way, fast and flat.

We stopped in Grinnell, IA for lunch and to celebrate the three-point shot.

We listened to 'Car' - the cleverly-titled playlist Whitney made - and a One Direction playlist of my daughter's design, where I failed repeatedly at identifying which of the lads were singing.

My daughter, who I learned is an aggro driver, took the last shift again, and brought us into Omaha at 2:30 pm local time. 541 miles knocked out in 8:22.

We stayed across the street from Charles Schwab Field, where the College Baseball World Series has been held since 2011 - the banners from the 2023 event are still hung.

The area around the stadium is clearly in the midst of a revival, with a number of baseball themed bars and restaurants mixed in with coffee shops, new-looking apartment complexes and a handful of hotels. 

Took a quick tour of Creighton University, which was about six blocks from our hotel. It's kinda meh. We had a good dinner at Blatt (named in homage to Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, where the CWS used to be contested), which included a quite good hazy IPA called Fairy Nectar from Kros Strain Brewing in La Vista, NE. On our way to dinner, my kid and I raced up the steps at Schwab. She won. Gonna chalk it up to not wanting to fall on my face or dirty my new Air Max 90 Terrascapes.

Leg Three: Omaha, NE to Boulder, CO

We watched some of Australia's 2-0 WWC win over Denmark, grabbed a cuppa from Rally Coffee (much recommend), and hit the road at 7:08 am for the second day in a row. If it ain't broke, and all that.

My kid is not one that laughs easily, and her default mode where I'm concerned is eyeroll. So I was pleased in no small measure when I made her laugh out loudly at length by inventing the International Symbol For...which was a derivation of a long-ago birthed signal for getting free chips, no pay at La Tolteca in Williamsburg. That laughter might've made the whole trip worth it.

I'm an excellent photographer

We took 80 West to 76 West to 36 into Boulder. Nebraska was much more interesting than I expected, replete with lakes, rivers, creeks, museums, wide open spaces waving green and gold.

Stopped for lunch at a Wendy's in Oglalla, NE, right before we crossed into the Mountain time zone, because we needed to pee. I had a ghost pepper chicken sandwich that was flavorful and actually hot, unlike so many mass market 'spicy' foods. Made my eyelids sweat and all.

After much debate and a small wager, we saw the Rockies for the first time about an hour from Denver, at which point we played Rocky Mountain High at my kid's request. We sang loudly and not particularly well.

The scenery changed almost immediately as soon as we crossed into Colorado, the flat of Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska heaving up into spectacular vistas. Gorgeous.

We switched from music to podcasts on this leg. Heard the latest We Defy Augury, a silly and funny episode of the Try Guys podcast, a couple Smartless episodes, and an interview of Niall Horan by Zack Sang. 

Like the first two days, the kid took the final shift behind the wheel, and we rolled into Boulder just after 2:00 pm local time. Took us 7:52 to traverse the 555 miles from Omaha. Ate at a little joint on The Hill, which is CU's bar district, and relaxed. 

All in all, it was a remarkably easy trip, and my kid and I had a really excellent time together - that ain't always the case between two stubborn people. To be honest, the only thing I really worried about when others expressed concern about the length of the trip was whether we'd spend 1,655 miles and 26 some-odd hours in a car together in silence. I needn't have worried. 

We'll probably get to do that trip a few more times, since we'll need to get that car back and forth from Colorado to Virginia for a couple more years. I'm sure we'll hit some headwinds in future journeys. But I'm feeling blessed to have had that much time with my little girl, and eager for the next opportunity.