Rubie and Britta's Epic Roadtrip: Part 1

I've always wanted to roadtrip across the country, but have never had the time (or a reason good enough to do so). So, when I was offered an internship in California, I think my reason for accepting was as much for the adventure as the promise of an amazing job.

Britta volunteered herself to help me drive out (yaaay, because my mother is THE WORLD'S WORST BACKSEAT DRIVER), so she flew out and spent a few days at my family's home in Chicago before we embarked on our marathon drive. Our one day tour of the city sights turned into a shopping-and-food mission...I feel like this is always what happens when Britta and I hang out, despite our best efforts to be productive.

We tried to go to Frontera Grill for lunch, but they closed at 2, so we ended up eating next door at sister restaurant XOCO. XOCO did not disappoint; it's equally amazing as Frontera Grill despite being a quick-service restaurant.



My Woodland Mushroom torta

We did manage to squeeze in one touristy thing: THE BEAN.





If you've never been to Chicago before, the Bean (also known as Cloud Gate) is an excellent time waster. Seriously, I could sit around for hours just taking pictures of this thing.


Futzing with my Holga, aka my only currently working camera :( Could I look any more hipster?

After some adventures in Illinois (in which Britta, 23, was denied buying a bottle of Pinot Grigio...don't ask), we set off for California!




Windmills in Iowa

By the way: thank god for Coralville, Iowa, home of POSSIBLY THE ONLY STARBUCKS IN THE ENTIRE STATE.


Worst state in the union?

Shockingly, we took about 3 pictures total in Nebraska. If you have never been to Nebraska, let me tell you: you wouldn't have found anything to take pictures of either. Nebraska is like one giant swirling dustbowl with no Starbucks and towns with names like Ogallala. Before we left Chicago that morning, I ambitiously suggested to Britta that we try to make it to Denver in one day, and she was like "HA HA R U CRAZY? NO." However, about halfway through Nebraska, when we hadn't seen a city in hours (unless power plants count) and both of us were unable to breathe from the dust and jittering from lack of caffeine, we decided there was no way we were spending the night in Nowheresville, Nebraska.









Although we never actually got rained on, we saw some NASTY storms forming around the Nebraska/Colorado border. I grew up in the Midwest and some of the black, swirling wall clouds we saw scared the crap out of me. Thankfully, the storms stayed away from the highway, and as the sun set over Colorado, the view of the retreating clouds was amazing:








Stay tuned for Part 2!