Chris & Rachel: The Final Frontier: Iowa & Illinois

Seward, NE to Romeoville, IL and finally Carbondale, IL: New Home

After reluctantly saying goodbye to Seward, we continued on our journey to the final frontier. Despite the fact we had been driving all week we were still very optimistic about the day and in good spirits. Our destination was Romeoville, IL where Tyson goes to school at Lewis University. (It is a suburb of Chicago) However, we first had to conquer Iowa!

Welcome to Iowa: Check!

Chris was really adamant about me getting a picture of the farmland here because apparently they 'tier the land' to prevent erosion. I think he was mostly excited that he knew that fact. It was interesting to see the farmland on several levels. Most of Iowa was brown because corn isn't in season yet so all the fields are just dirt, but there are patches of green grass on groves of trees in between the farms. With the blue sky as a background and cotton ball clouds drifting above us it was beautiful.

Jesus.

We were excited to check out the World's Largest Truckstop - thanks to the heads up from a friend in Chicago. They were definitely not joking, this place was like a mini-mall! They had a whole downstairs area of chrome and lights and do-dads to deck out the semi's. They also had an extended gift shop sections and a few little restaurants. It was a much needed stop, because even though Iowa was pretty we were getting anxious to get to Illinois and Tyson.

Em-I-Double ess-I-Double ess-I-Double pee-I River

What a spectacular entrance to Illinois! The Mississippi river is the left side of the State of Illinois' border. I'm so glad that we were able to cross it while it was still light out and the clouds above the river were gorgeous!

Welcome to Illinois: Check!

After the excitement of the Mississippi and the Welcome sign the truck got silent as we both started to realize that we actually made it! We were now in our new home state. We looked at each other with a little bit of bewilderment and excitement and just started grinning from ear to ear.

Visiting Tyson was so much fun that we ended up staying another night. It was a little bizarre being back in a college dorm, not going to lie, and even a little more bizarre staying with Ty on the boy's floor. Lewis is a really pretty campus and Tyson's friends are great. We hung out with his freshman teammates and his lovely girlfriend Cindy - who I for some reason keep calling Sydney accidentally. We even got to see where he swims and meet his coaches. We were both sad to go on Saturday morning, but we went out to the best breakfast place ever! Niko's Breakfast Club is a must to add to any travel list. So good!

The last day of driving and we couldn't be happier! We were so anxious and excited to see Carbondale and what it is like! The whole was down we talked about our future and our plans and life - it was so special.