My dad has always told me that he never EVER wants to drive through Nebraska again. When he was in college he purposefully went around it to the north or the south just to avoid the boring state. I didn't think that was possible, I thought that there had to be some interesting things about it. I was mistaken.

We left the seedy crack motel in the morning and I drove to Chimney Rock. When I finally saw it I was pretty excited. When we left, I had no idea that I was leaving the most interesting scenery in Nebraska behind us only to be confronted with flat fields for the next two days. Alex does over half the drive today because I'm really starting to come down with it. At times my whole body is so sore that all I can do is sit in my seat trying to relax and gaze blurredly out at the fields passing my window. Every time I cough I sit in pain for about 5 minutes as my body recovers from the movement.

When we get to Kansas Alex has used up most of his reserves and can barely breathe in the cold air. He manages to put two tent pegs in the ground alone and then I help him put in the other two and put up the tent. I make us some chicken noodle soup and fried bread hoping that'll make us feel better. Alex has a few spoonfuls and then can't eat anymore. This is when we look at the weather and find out that it's going to be 25 degrees tonight with 25 mph wind and freezing rain. We have very little money and there's nothing around so we go to bed at 5 saying that if it gets too bad we'll sleep in the car or pack everything up and head south.

Everything is okay for a few hours, but then the wind picks up and the way it blows through the trees it sounds like the entire ocean dumping waves down 10 feet away. Crash, crash, woosh! The tent is periodically blasted with a huge gust, and I spend most of the night looking at the tent cover worried that I'm gonna have to go outside and find it if it blows off. Then I remember that we left our burner with a pot on it outside and I worry that I won't be able to find that in the morning. Then the freezing rain starts. It blasts the sides of the tent over and over. It's steadily getting colder and Alex and I are holding each other to keep from freezing. At about 5 in the morning it lets up a bit and Alex and I sleep for maybe 3 hours. When we go outside we find the ENTIRE tent covered in a thin sheet of ice. I hit the outside of the tent and shards of ice break off and fall to the ground.

We decide to split up the labor, me outside packing things up and Alex inside the car packing things in. We decided on this because I felt a lot better than he did after that horrible night. I get everything inside the tent packed up and to him. As I'm putting the tent away, with no gloves, my hands start to freeze. I look at them, they're not the colour they should be and I run back to the car and start to cry. Alex says, "Let me go out there and finish the tent."

"No" I say through tears, "you're sicker than me. You stay here and I'll go finish the tent." Putting away the stupid tears, I hate being a Cancer sometimes, I get Alex's gloves and go back out into the 20 degree weather to put away the tent. I get so frustrated with the tarp when it won't roll up that I throw it down on the ground and yell at it. Finally I get everything in the car and start driving. To where exactly I don't know but I'm getting out of this fucking cold TODAY.

For two hours I drive down highways in Kansas. Everything is covered in ice and the car likes to drift back and forth on the asphalt. At about 11:00, in the middle of Kansas we stop at an IHOP and get breakfast. I figure even though we have limited resources, this is a time when a hot meal made by someone else is in order. We must have looked like death when we walked in: pale with rings around our eyes from not sleeping, our clothes three days old, our hair a mess under our hats. I have chorizo with eggs, hashbrowns and tortillas; Alex has the Breakfast Sampler which has eggs, hash browns, pancakes, bacon and sausage. We drink 3 cups of coffee each before we decide it's time to get back on the road again.

After another 4 hours of driving we stop in Wichita for Mochas at a Starbucks. Oh sweet mochas! They give us enough boost to keep going the next 3 hours into MIssouri. In those three hours we start to see trees on the landscape. Not just your normal trees either, fall coloured trees. The landscape gets a little more hilly and we find ourselves in the Mark Twain National Forest well after the sun has set, putting up our tent to in the light of the car's headlamps.