I'm here!

As planned, I arrived in Kansas City on Sunday night. The remainder of my drive was easy, just long. By the time I pulled into the driveway at Tom's mother's house I was ready to be done driving for a while. The second half of my journey was certainly more interesting than my first one. I've driven from Maine to Buffalo many times to get to Canada, and the little stretch between Buffalo and Cleveland was in the dark so I couldn't see anything. When I woke up the next morning, the first thing that I noticed was the terrain had changed. First it was the absense of pine trees, then it was the realization that the familiar rolling hills of New England had been exchanged for wide, flat expanses of farm land. I thought that I had found prarie, however, a quick text message to Tom concluded that I was in the rich farmland of the Ohio River valley.

I got to drive through several major US cities, which include Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana. Indianapolis is a really pretty city, I loved the skyline. :D I also had a bit of a redneck moment when I drove past the famous "brickyard". Then it was on to Illinois. Tom warned me that anything south of I-80 was considered rural Illinois. What he should have said is that Illinois is a huge, flat cornfield with a major US city on top. I was counting down the miles to St. Louis, it was definitely encouraging to see Missouri cities on the highway signs.

I finally reached the Mississippi River about mid-afternoon on Sunday. It was definitely one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I'm a history geek, so stuff like this makes my day. I crossed the Mississippi river a few miles north of St. Louis on the famous Rt. 66. To my left, on the horizon, I could see St. Louis and the gateway arch. It was awesome, and that, combined with being in the same state as Tom gave me enough of an adreniline rush to keep going. I was definitely getting tired of driving at that point.

Missouri is a prarie state, and after spending a week in Wyoming this past winter with my dad, I was fearing for the worst. To my surprise, Missouri prarie is not the desolate wide expanse of Wyoming. Rather, it is rolling hills of emeral green with groves of trees/shrubs all over the place. It was actually really pretty. My favorite part of my drive actually occurred just before I hit Kansas City. Something else I didn't know about Missouri was that they have abolutely gorgeous sunsets, and to add, I was still out in the prarie, so the sky was huge! Some of the brightest shades of oranges, reds, blues, and pinks I have ever seen, and since I was headed west, I was literally driving into the sunset. I could just imagine myself sitting on the front porch swing of an old prarie farm house sipping sweet tea and enjoying the sunset. I think I can be very comfortable here.

I arrived in the Kansas City metro area just as the sun slipped below the horizon, which was a treat in itself because cities are always prettiest at night when they are lit. I got to Tom's mother's house about an hour before Tom got home from work. He literally got home in about 15 minutes, to which someone responded "he never gets home that quick, it's because SHE'S here" that made me giggle. For my first night in Kansas City, Tom made me dinner. He is quite a chef, and I am definetly going to have my work cut out for me convincing him that I am also a fairly decent cook. Tom made me ribeye steak stuffed with feta cheese and portobella mushrooms; on the side he made sauteed cabbage and pierogies. I was in heaven. As I mentioned, his cooking is abolutely amazing, like having a personal restaurant chef... it was also the first food that I had in two days that didn't come from a drive through window. He certainly knows how to welcome a girl to her new home.