Josh and Rachel at the Manly, Iowa library

I've been trying to write an entry about this for days, but I have had really bad writer's block and have hardly been able to form a sentence!! I'm not saying that today is much better than any other day, but at least I've gotten this far!

Josh and me at the Manly speed limit sign

Ok... I took a trip to Iowa last tuesday. :) It was extremely random and spontaneous. I had been talking to Rachel, and we were talking about how badly we just wanted to get away from home... just get out of the state for a day. Thus came about the idea of going to Iowa. We live only about an hour away from the Iowa border... no big deal. So we decided to get a large group of people together, pile into my car, being that I'm the only one with my license and a car, and drive down to Iowa for lunch. :) Well, the large group idea quickly went away, because everyone was busy! So it ended up just being 3 of us... Rachel, Josh, and myself. Which was fine.... it turned out great. There was not a moment of silence the whole trip! I think we just go well together... we were laughing so hard most of the trip, I'm suprised I could drive as well as I did!

Oh... drive so well, especially with my window like this:

Final post-it update

Rachel had brought a little post-it pad, and she wrote little messages on it the whole way. Such as "We love Iowa!", "Hello, my name is George (w/accent)", "I'm an underwear gnome", "Damn the French and their silent t's!", "They call me Billiam", and so on and so forth. :) There were so many! And they were hilarious... I love them. I kept them, actually. I just need to figure out where to put them. They have lost their stickiness, so I can't hang them anywhere... but yea. Maybe I'll start making a new scrapbook?

We started out at about 11am on tuesday morning. I picked up Rachel first, then Josh. We stopped so I could fill my car up with gas, being as it was so cheap, and I would need it anyways, and then it took us half an hour befor eI finally go onto the highway that we wanted to go on! haha... I had hopped on the wrong highway at first... stupid me. Anyways, we were driving along, talking. Josh had found my notebook, in which I had a page with just my "favorite things" listed, which includes sunrises and sunsets, playful kittens, my blankie.... just embarrasing stuff. haha. It was great when he got to the part about playful kittens and he goes "awwww... me too!"... haha. After he finally stopped making fun of me (it was really just playful... nothing too horrible.. haha), Rachel starts talking about this place in Iowa named Manly. We thought that was so funny, the name. You know... manly? As in, much like a man? We decided that we would stop there on our way to Clear Lake, and we did. It's such a small town with like, absolutely nothing around! We drove around for a little, and out first stop was at the Manly Library, where we got some pictures with the sign, and then we turned around and got some pictures of the water tower. We drove around a little, looking for a restaurant we could possibly eat at instead of going to Clear Lake, but this place had absolutely nothing! We did find one hilarious thing though. It was so random!

Life, Liberty, and Rachel

Just randomly in town was a lamp post that was the statue of liberty! I thought that was hilarious!! Gathered pictures of that too, and then decided we'd make on stop at the Manly speed limit sign on our way out, and head to Clear Lake.

We finally reached Clear Lake, and I realized that I had been there before, on my way back from Nebraska with my family back in October, after my Mom's cousin's wedding. I found a spot to pull over, and we had a heck of a time trying to figure out where we wanted to eat... there were so many choices! We finally decided on Denny's... it was ok. I had never eaten at a Denny's before. I mean, its not like I'll never eat there again, but I won't neccesarily run out and HAVE to eat there. After we were done there, we had to make a quick get-away, because Josh stole a spoon. :)

We started on our way back to Minnesota, and decided we were going to go to the Spam museum. We even stopped at a rest area/welcoming station on our way back into the state, and I looked at a poster to find out what exit to take and everything while Rachel was using the restroom. While waiting for her, Josh and I were looking at some brochures on the counter, and the guy working there came over to us and said "Welcome to Minnesota!", and I said "Ummmm... thanks. But we live here" in kind of a deadpan voice. haha... he then said "Oh.... well, welcome home!" and smiled and then turned. It was so funny. :) When Rachel came out, we left, got a picture of the building, and headed on our way.

Welcome to Minnesota! (Josh is leaning against the pole)

Got back on the highway, and I was looking at all the exits, because I knew it had to be coming up. But all of a sudden, the numbers of the exits took a jump, and I had missed the exit!! So there was no spam museum trip on Tuesday. We do have a plan to go next month though... :)

We got back into town, and I dropped Rachel off first. Her dad thought the post-it's on the window were hilarious... which, by the way, as we passed people on the highway, recieved many different reactions. Ranging from looking very pissed off, to swerving because they were laughing so hard. haha. I then dropped Josh at home, then pulled up in front of my house, took final post-it pictures, and got out of my car, walked into the house, and just reflected on the day. I wish I had the day off today and we could go on the trip again!

We have more trips planned. Rachel wants to go to the Spam Museum next month, and I want to go to Wisconsin in August. We might even make another trip and go to South Dakota.

I don't know if I would want extra people to go... I think it would have a very different atmosphere. :) That was the most fun I have had in a long time... there was not a moment of silence along the way... with us talking about "... if you know what I mean" and Josh singing Brak songs and "Tribute" by Tenacious D. :) Memories... haha. I wish I had a video camera in my car catching everything. Maybe next time I'll bring my dads... :)