the gut of our country

like most of us, our country has a problematic midsection.

after two days of chaotic travel, through horrible weather in the midwest, I finally made it into Pittsburgh around 8:00 last night. Boy and I left Colorado around 2:00 pm on Friday, beating out the blizzard conditions that plagued eastern colorado and western nebraska by only a few hours.

that night, we stopped at a motel 6 in some small, Iowa town. abby must have eaten some dirty snow in the parking lot because the minute we got in the room, she tossed her doggie cookies. oh my. it was after midnight. I was exhausted. but I cleaned it up and got ready for bed. so... we were in a non-smoking room so imagine my surprise when I pulled down the sheets and discovered a cigarette lighter in the bed. so very many questions that I don't even want to think about.

the next day, Boy and I drove to his parents' house in Wisconsin. it was so nice to be in a clean, homey place where people fed us. abby was happy too. Boy, prankster that he is, took the lighter from the motel 6 and put it under the comforter at his parents' place. I was so tried an exhausted (yes, I know that's redundant) that when I discovered the lighter, I was a little freaked out - speechless even - for about ten seconds. seriously, is that thing following me?

it was windy as heck though for the ENTIRE trip. poor abby. every time we stopped to let her stretch her legs, it was all she could do to keep herself upright in the crazy conditions.

in addition to the wind, after dropping Boy off in Wisconsin (lots of cheese there, btw), I dealt with a five mile stretch of black-iced highway in Ohio, frozen windshield washer fluid (at some point outside of Milwaukee, I literally couldn't see a thing and I really, honestly, thought I was going to die), and crazy (CRAZY) traffic in Chicago, just to name a few things. abby was a trooper through it all. what a good dog.it was funny though - she hasn't been in PA for two years. when she got out of the car, she definitely knew where she was but she was just so confused by it. she kept looking at me like "how the heck did we get here?"

the trip wasn't all bad though. I had a super yummy egg nog latte in Ohio. but by far, my favorite thing about the trip was the guy in the car in front of me at the toll booth in Chicago. he was driving a powder blue jaguar with creamy leather interior. he had a red, plush hat with a pompom on top and some kind of red fur coat. at first, I thought he might be a little old lady but when he opened the door to pay his toll (he was that kinda guy - door, not window), I saw the numerous gold rings on his fingers and I knew he was a pimp daddy!

god, I miss diversity.