Twenty-four hours is a very long way to drive, especially when the first two and a half hours are actually spent doubling back to where you started. When I decided that I would drive out to Montana to help my parents move back to Kansas City, my older brother
decided that he would go along with me. Of course, this meant that I had to go down and get him in Springfield, MO, 150 Miles south of KC before I could head out west.
I decided that the best route to follow would be to go south on Thursday night, and head out Friday morning. Of course, it added a few hours to me already long trip, but it also gave me a traveling companion that would keep me company for the two day trek across the heart of the United States, an invaluable addition, considering that two of the states we’d be crossing, Nebraska and Wyoming, are among the most boring landscape ever crafted by God’s hand. It is about as flat and dusty as you can ever possibly imagine.
There were times when if felt as though the road ahead of us was so infinitely long and identical that it had to be some sort of computerized simulation.
We split the trip into two sections, the first half from Springfield, MO to Hershey, NE, where we stopped and visited with our aunt, which we were incredibly lucky to have living almost halfway between the two cities.
When we pulled into Hershey late Friday night, or more accurately early Saturday Morning, we thought we were feeling up to finishing the last thirteen miles of the drive that night, but it we weren’t there for more than half an hour before we both started to slip off into a fuzzy state of sleepy. It was great to be able to see some family, and have a nice place to rest and make the next day almost bearable.
The second half of our trip was much longer and more exhausting. It was already dark by the time we hit the Wyoming/Montana border, still four hours away from Helena. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of driving through the mountains of Western Montana, you know that they are some of the most amazing, beautiful and dizzying country you can ever drive through, unless of course, you’re driving through there when it’s pitch black outside.
What was once a wonderful sojourn through beautiful countryside becomes a journey of twisty, windy terror. At least it wakes you up.
At the end of our little cross country adventure, we arrived at our parent’s home in Helena safely at about 1:00 in the morning. Late as it was, though, we were greeted with warm hugs, KFC chicken, and Saturday night’s brand new episode of Doctor Who.