Red and Brown Tour America: July 2008

Day 8 Continued: Twin Cities

After driving through Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa, we crossed our last state line for the day and entered Minnesota just as the sun started to set. We were lucky enough to get into the capitol, St. Paul, before nightfall.

The State House in St. Paul, Minnesota

The very impressive St. Paul Cathedral

Minneapolis Skyline

That night, Ryan called up one of his sisters to ask about things to see in the Minneapolis, as she had lived there a few years prior. She gave us some great recommendations, and per our request, she also informed us of where we'd find a safe neighborhood to park our car...with us sleeping in it that is...

We slept better than we thought we would, it being our first overnight stay in the car. I think we attracted a little attention to ourselves in this neighborhood of mansions though. We woke up to firefighters staring into our car probably wondering who the heck these bums are.

-Brown

Day 8: Nebraska & Iowa

Ryan with his founder at the Kiewit Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska

Our car, Paula, didn't suffer a scratch in Iowa. The deer, however, didn't stand a chance. If we had any trunk space left, we would have picked up this hitchhiker and made some deer sausage for the trip over to Madison. Rest in peace buddy.

The State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa (a.k.a. the Corn Palace)

Day 7: Kansas City

I met Cole and Monica in the summer of 2006 at La Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico. WE were students there studying language and at that time Cole and Monica were dating. We met up with the now-newly-wed couple at their new home in K.C. Cole and Monica were sweet enough to open their home to us for the night. They took us to the Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City - a really cool atmosphere. It was pretty surreal to see Cole and Monica. Then again, much of this trip has felt surreal.

-Brown

Day 6: Manhattan, the little apple.

In the summer of 2005 Mark and I were coworkers for the city of Bellevue Park Patrol. This was our first experience driving in a car together for hours on end, who knew that it would lead to this! During that glorified, fun-filled summer we worked with Matt. He was THE reason the summer was so much fun. Matt is from Manhattan, Kansas and we decided that we had to stop by and pay him a visit. We arrived around 7:00pm, upon which Mark and I saw fireflies for the first time ever. If you haven't seen fireflies before you definately need to pay Kansas a visit.

That night we went out with Matt and met all of his K-State Buddies. This guy knows EVERYONE in Manhattan, so we got the VIP tour of the little apple. We love you Matt!

-Red

Day 5: Denver

We arrived in Denver around 3pm and headed straight for the city center. We walked around the city for the next few hours until we were able to meet up with my friend Colin. We all went out to an amazing and cheap Thai place where they had 25 cent beers! That evening we played Frisb

ee golf, and had a little Halo competition.

The next morning we took of early and headed for Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak. Mark rallied the car all the way to the top of the 14,110 ft peak while I gave him turn by turn directions with the GPS and my laptop. We had a verbal rating system of 1 to 5 based on how sharp the turn ahead was. It was very fun. The car's (a.k.a Paula) performance decreased as we got above 10,000 ft, but we still made it to the top in under 30 minutes.

-Red

Day 4: Arches National Park, Utah

- Delicate Arch at sunrise

- Landscape Arch

Day 3: Salt Lake City

Day 3 started late, as we slept in quite a bit. We left Boise around 3pm and went through Nevada to get to Utah. We visited the Bonneville Salt Flats on our way to Salt Lake. The Bonneville Speedway was a definite highlight of the trip for me. This is the place where the world's land-speed records are broken. We didn't break any land-speed records ourselves, but we did find out that our rental car's speed is limited to 113. :)

Matt was nice enough to have us stay the night at his place just north of downtown. We went out for a bite to eat and he took us to see the Temple Square. Very beautiful architecture, but the giant wall surrounding the whole thing and the fact that you need a Mormon ID card to enter is a little eerie...

-Brown

Day 2: Boise

A good 11 hours of driving filled most of our day. We said goodbye to my folks in Yakima at 5am and met my sister in Spokane for breakfast. As far as the drive goes, the best part of the drive was from Coeur d' Alene to Boise through the Panhandle. The shot to the left is from a bluff above Lewiston, Idaho. That was where my camcorder broke. The tape is jammed in there and wont come out. I'm pretty bummed about that, but were gonna use Ryan's camera for filming in the meantime. That evening we met up with a couple of my high school friends for a night out on the town. Great times as always, Keefe and Kid: we love you!

-Brown