Hey guys! I'm back in Indiana :) Well, to be honest, I got back last week, but I decided to take a little blogging break while I was recuperating from vacation. It was a productive week for me; I spent most of it reading, writing, and watching the third season of Game of Thrones (we got HBO last week, so I was able to do that and catch up on the current season of True Blood). Also, a HUGE thank you to Lindsey and Brenda for guest posting while I was gone!

Anyway, in case you missed it, I went on a road trip with my friend Hannah (who, by the way, is 22, not 16. She gets that a lot.)

awkward double selfie at the Houston show

She's spending the summer going to Big Time Rush concerts, and wanted someone to come along with her for the shows in Houston, Dallas, and Oklahoma City. Loving to travel, having not done so in years, and being eager to go to a few new states and cities, I jumped at the chance.

We were kind of busy, and did a lot of driving at night, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I got some. You can find more pictures (and generally more exciting ones) from the trip on Instagram :)

So Thursday, we picked up our rental car (a Nissan Versa that Hannah named Jason Aldean) and headed out on the road.

The first state we reached was Illinois.

please excuse the dead bug guts on the windshield

I have been to Illinois a few times, but only to Chicago, (I grew up in eastern Indiana, so we would go to Ohio instead of Illinois) so it was interesting driving through central/south Illinois. It looked even more farm-y than Indiana. We stopped at a gas station, I think but that was about it. We passed a sign for the World's Largest Windchime, but unfortunately we couldn't see it from the road, and we didn't stop.

A couple of things we did see in Illinois that were interesting were this giant cross (it looks like it's made of aluminum)


and the Mississippi River, which I had never seen before. It was really cool!


And just like that, while we were crossing the Mississippi, we were in Missouri.



I had never been to Missouri before. We stopped for gas again a time or two, and near the Missouri/Arkansas border, we stopped for dinner. Hannah had been craving Pizza Hut for a few days, so we stopped and got some pizza. Like any sane people, we both love cold pizza, so we figure, hey, we'll get a couple meals out of it. Not a bad deal.

We got a stuffed crust pizza, half veggie (for her), half cheese (for me). Hannah wanted some breadsticks too, so we ordered some. I asked if we could get some cheese to go with them. The waitress stared at me like I had three heads. You see, in Indiana, breadsticks and cheese sauce go together like peanut butter and jelly. I had heard that wasn't really the case outside of Indiana, but I had forgotten until that moment. They didn't have any cheese sauce in the whole restaurant. And the pizza? It had this weird orange buttery sauce thing on it. I don't know what it was, but it tasted weird. And it made the leftover pizza orange. Yeah, I definitely prefer Pizza Hut in Indiana.

We got back in the car, and saw a beautiful sunset. I don't know if it was vacation, or Missouri, or being in the country, or what, but I haven't seen a sunset like that in a long time.


When night set in, we arrived in Arkansas.


A few hours later, we reached Little Rock, where we were spending the night.

blurry driving-down-the-interstate pic of downtown Little Rock (and no, I wasn't driving)

I often forget that Indianapolis is as large as it is, because before this trip, I had only been to a handful of major cities, including Chicago and Houston, which are both much larger than Indy. But Indy is the 13th largest city in the country. I guess it just doesn't feel that way to me because I grew up within an hour of it, and it's nothing compared to Chicago. But I was reminded when I saw Little Rock. Not that I'm trying to put down Little Rock; we just spent the night in a hotel, and didn't get out otherwise, but I'm sure it's a lovely city. It's just interesting how it puts things in perspective.

I've been rambling for awhile now, so I guess breaking this into a few parts is probably in everyone's best interest. Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!