Drive By Shootings

On our trip, my mom and I were able to claim making it to 11 states in 8 days. In saying this, we are including detouring a bit to drive through Kentucky for an hour, Mississippi for an hour, and passing through the corner of Oklahoma for 24 minutes. This also includes starting and ending in Minnesota and cruising up 35 in Iowa, a road that many would find boring but after curvy mountain roads, two lane highways, and "big, scary bridges," turned out to be wonderful!

Entering Kentucky, we crossed the Ohio River on another "big, scary bridge." This bridge was under construction and down to one lane. Mom, who has had a fear of bridges for just about forever, did not find the situation pleasant. We developed a trick on the trip to help her fear. I would drive over the bridge while she held the camera. By holding the camera and taking a few pictures, she ended up focusing on the camera and not her fear. It certainly helped my stress level driving and it helped her not curse as much.


In this picture, you can see traffic merging into one lane. We crossed the river surrounded by trucks and it was hard to get a great shop.


We crossed the Ohio River right before it dumps into the Mississippi River. It's rather big at this point.


My mom thought it was fun to take a picture of me as I drove over the bridge.


Mom and I had a bit of time between Graceland and hitting Beale Street for the second night so we drove south a little to enter Mississippi. We didn't spend a long time in Mississippi, but we did stop at the visitor center. It was actually the nicest of all the visitor centers we went to. The ladies running the center had the perfect Southern hospitality. We were offered water and sodas and asked to sign the guest book. It was just pleasant.





Oklahoma was brief, but at least we got to shop. And we were on a toll road, so that made the driving fast.



The toll booth - not the phantom toll booth.






The trip home was swift. As I mentioned, Iowa was an easy road and once we found our way to Minnesota, it seemed like home was just a bit away.

Corn, corn, and more corn. And pretty countrysides.
Iowa



It was nice to be home. I love the state sign for Minnesota.


The first day of the trip, we went through Wisconsin. Here's just a couple quick shots of the state.