road trip, day two: OH, IN, IL, MO

after the panic-inducing first day of our trip, things got decidedly better. jon insisted on starting out the day by watching bolt on his ipod with the volume on full blast through my speakers, which made me tearfully homesick for my baby kitty, but around the time the movie was finished, we crossed over into Indiana, which was the first place we saw that looked truly different from the northeast.Indiana, at least the part that we drove through, is pretty much cornfields for as far as the eye can see.
Indianapolis reminded me of hartford, but mostly because of the way the highway looked approaching it.
Illinois was more cornfields.
St. Louis looked like a pretty sweet city. Of course, we didn't stop. We were determined to just keep on pushing through.
In Missouri we saw one of those amazing western sunsets that are impossible to take a decent picture of.


when we got hungry, we started scanning the signs off the highway looking for something promising. we came across a billboard for a place called the missouri hick, which served barbecue and we decided to go for it. we took the exit as the billboard instructed, and found ourselves literally, in the middle of nowhere. when i attempted to turn around in someone's driveway, at least ten pitbulls came running from their yard at our car. the driveway that i finally managed to pull into did not have pitbulls, but rather hens and chickens everywhere, just roaming around as if they owned the place. it was slightly terrifying.
when we finally hit civilizationa again, we stumbled onto this place called matt's steakhouse .
seriously, if you are ever in missouri, go to this place. i promise you will not be disappointed. The decor is all cheesy 90's faux-upscale, with a waterfall in the middle and booths the size of a bed. And the steak....the steak completely redefined my idea about what a steak is supposed to taste like. we ordered the KC strip, which made the entire idea of a NY strip seem like a feeble joke. Also, they had these amazing breadsticks that bore an uncanny resemblance to fried dough.

After our amazing meal, we splurged and got a decent hotel to make up for the previous night's disaster. It was small and unremarkable, but we reveled in every detail, from the clean towels to the multitude of pillows. when you're far away from home, it's the little things like that make a difference.

love always