Day 151 - Take the Long Way Home . . .

Today was beautiful. Amazing. Gorgeous. Perfect.

So after another fun afternoon at the lake we headed home. We ended up getting on the road around 3 and since we had the Jeep top down and the sun was shining, we decided to try a new way home. And take the 'back roads' from Nebraska to Kansas and to avoid Interstate 29 completely.

We set off with out much of a plan and used my cell phone map as our guide.


There wasn't a cloud in the sky . . . before we got too far on our way, we stopped off in Nebraska City to fuel up the car, buy a map and then stopped at Runza for a a quick snack to take on the road. We bought an order of mini-corn dogs (can you believe I have never had a corn dog what-so-ever, until this afternoon.) The were pretty darn good. Not the healthiest thing in the world and I don't even want to know what is in them, but I am glad I can cross corn dogs off my list of first.

With our car fueled up and a snack for our bellies we set off on the open road . . .


Of course, it wouldn't be a drive through the country without lots of bugs hitting the wind shield

It was neat to go down a road neither of us had ever taken and to just sit back and enjoy the beautiful country side


Our adventure was off to a great start

And before too long we were crossed the State line into Kansas

Normally, on I-29 we go from Nebraska to Iowa to Missouri to Kansas so it was nice to go straight from Nebraska into Kansas

There were plenty of reminders that we were driving though the heartland



Everything was going well and we made good time to get to our first big turn off towards Hiawatha (love the name)

We crossed a little road-side dinner, called Philly's so I took a picture, for my dad Phil :)

We continued along our way, enjoying all the beautiful country scapes



Every picture we took, was taken while we were in motion so I was pretty impressed with some of neat shots we were able to capture.

As we got to Atchinson, KS we hit our first detour, but just rolled along, following the signs

And kept noticing signs for the Lewis & Clark trail and the Pony express, it's pretty amazing to think of all the people and messages that crossed the same path so many years ago.

The first detour was the longest one either of us had ever taken - it probably added 45 minutes to an hour to our journey, but the sun kept shining and we kept smiling - it was too nice out to worry about time


This in one of the last pictures I snapped before Quinn and I switched places (his allergies were starting to get pretty bad, which is strange considering he NEVER has allergies . . . one of the perks of the great outdoors I suppose)

A haunted house perhaps?

Something about a rickety old barn gets me every time. Quinn and I originally thought about having our wedding reception in one, with pretty lights and a big dance party - although this didn't pan out, don't be surprised if we end up throwing a barn party sometime down the road


We actually hit a second detour, and somehow missed the signs, but after a simple rerouting of our trip we were back on track (for the record, I am the better navigator and Quinn can stick to driving)

Some rolling hills and few hay barrels later . . .

We made it home. Total travel time ~ 5 hours. Regular route 2.5 hours.

We probably won't use our newly discovered way home on a regular basis, but when it's too gorgeous out to not be in the great out doors, and if the jeep top is down we might just have to do this again . . .