Many souls were lost on I-70

If you weren't aware, it rains insects in Kansas.
Missouri doesn't believe in state roads having numbers and apparently learned their "AA BB CC's."
Colorado has no mountains when you enter it.
And we rejoice in making it over the Colorado border to finally be out of a 10 hour continuous scene from "Macon County Line."

Let's start with the fact that this morning we were in Nashville, TN. Mom wakes me up saying "It's 6:30. Let's get up and get moving." I waited like 20 minutes, changed, and packed up my stuff. I checked out of the hostel and got in the car. This is the first moment I have looked at the clock. I'm dead tired because of our evening out prior to this ungodly hour. So, glancing down at my phone I realize what mistake has been made and why I happen to be falling asleep sitting up. No, it's not 6:30. It's 5:30. Be sure to tell everyone you travel with that if they are going to be your alarm clock, make sure the time change between zones is made!

So at, what is now 6:00am, we head off to St. Louis, MO. Only a six hour drive of which I slept most of the way to wake up for the Arch. We walked around St. Louis for a bit. Walked down a street completely flooded...which apparently happens. Just another day in the life of a Missourian.

We ate lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory and got free Spumoni ice cream! Heck yes! That's when you know it's an awesome restaurant. Unfortunately, we had to pay for parking twice because neither one of us realized just how close the restaurant actually was.

Karma. We all know how it works. You knock on wood whenever you know somebody said something they shouldn't. Let's talk about how my mother has apparently never heard of this concept. It's my turn to drive as we leave St. Louis. In the car she proceeds to state, "You know it's great that it hasn't rained." I caught her! I told her to knock on ANYTHING. I couldn't believe she'd even bring up the "unmentionables." Rain and cops. Two things that should never be spoken of on a road trip. Now she's gone and jinxed us.

We hit some traffic on the road, of which the rubbernecking was rightfully so. This truck BLEW UP! The entire cab and contents of the truck (on the opposite side of the barrier) had caught fire and burned. The firetrucks had already put it out, but man was that insane! I've never seen anything like it. This is the point in MO/KS that we hit what I'd like to call one of the worst storms I've been through (Thanks Mom). Of course, I had to be the one driving. It couldn't have been her that got the bad juju. At one point, she turned to me and asked me if I wanted to pull over and wait the storm out; of which, the entire time she spoke I was hydroplaning. Awesome! <--That's complete sarcasm if you weren't aware. I did end up driving through it and once we were in KS we saw a truck that had obviously hydroplaned and flipped several times landing in the opposite direction against the barrier. All in all, the jinx definitely paid due. Kansas...crappiest state ever award. There's nothing there, the road goes on for almost 500 miles and it just seems like it'll never end. The only upside to it was the gorgeous sunset and the windmills. There were so many of them!

However, we did play a roadtrip game that I played as a kid. On your prospective side of the road you count cows. You end up fighting over how many cows you have. But you must keep the cows alive. If you pass by a river, they drown. I had a couple hundred cows and we passed by a prescribed burn and all my cows died in a fiery death. Then the remaining ones that might've survived with third degree burns were drowned in the lake not 500 feet away. I have horrible luck. The rest of the ride the cows were all on my mother's side of the road. But I did have some bison/ram/buffalo looking creature that totally kicked my mom's herds of cows butts! Now let's talk about some serious boredom. We spent almost 18 hours in the car today, but now were in Denver.

I saw a sign coming into "Colorful Colorado" that said " Correctional facility: Do NOT stop for hitchhikers." I pretty much entertained myself with how hilarious that was. Currently it's 1:30am here in Colorado, but it's 3:32am at home. Or I guess I can only say Florida now since Seattle will be home. Still getting used to the idea, but the idea is only vague. I don't think it'll hit till we get to Washington. No anxious butterflies yet. Only pure excitement to finally get there! Time to get some sleep (not sitting straight up in a seat). Oh, Comfort Inn...I hope you're comfortable.