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Iowa. Wide open roads. Beautiful Sunday evening.

Iowa. Wide open roads. Beautiful Sunday evening.

[on Roseanne] “She actually had ‘Property of Tom Arnold’ tattooed on her hip, which made me the fourth largest property-owner in California.”
-Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold

WELCOME TO IOWA: FIELDS OF OPPORTUNITIES

Iowa Welcome Sign There’s a reason why Iowa’s welcome sign says “Fields of Opportunities”. There are literally fields of corn and other types of vegetation that span the entire state. As you drive along the 80 freeway going West, you can see crops for miles and miles and miles on a clear day.

My trip was on a Sunday and therefore, the roads were quite clear and hardly anyone was traveling at the time. Or perhaps that’s how Iowa is on a regular basis? Anyone?

Regardless, driving through her was beautiful. Serene. Peaceful. If you ever want to clear your mind during a long drive, go to Iowa and hop on the 80 freeway on a Sunday afternoon in the summertime. You will not regret it.

I felt like I was in the movie, Gladiator, where Maximus beautifully described his home to Caesar.

During my drive, I was also lucky enough to witness some beautiful sunsets and cloud formations. I’ve shared them below.

QUICK NOTE:

Iowa was not my last stop for the evening. I booked a hotel (Holiday Inn Express & Suites) in Omaha, Nebraska but needed to eat some food before the last two hour drive. Upon arriving in Des Moines, I had no expectations. It’s Iowa for goodness sakes! The usual McDonald’s and KFC were forced into my scenery but I used Yelp and found an amazing sushi spot: Wasabi Chi. Imagine that, right? Amazing sushi in Iowa of all places. I ordered an avocado salmon roll, two pieces of mackerel sushi and everything was delicious. Sorry, no Fanta. I slowly enjoyed a nice glass of Riesling.

Cheers Bitches

Indiana – Dynamic Drive, Crazy Weather

Indiana – Dynamic Drive, Crazy Weather

“Success definitely brings on loneliness. People think you’re lucky, that you have everything. They think you can go anywhere and do anything, but that’s not the point. One hungers for the basic stuff.”
-Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson from Gary, Indiana

WELCOME TO INDIANA: CROSSROADS OF AMERICA

Indiana was part of a crazy 14-hour travel day that saw me drive from Toronto, Canada to Niagara (Falls), Canada to Detroit, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio to Gary, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois. And then, I was booked to do a comedy show in Chicago that night at 10pm.

I ended up driving through Indiana on a late Saturday afternoon. As I was driving along the 90 West freeway, it started to rain. The weather was fascinating … changing from sunny to rainy to lightning to sunny to rainy and then as the evening approached, the rain eased up and I drove through cloud cover for the last hour or so. It was actually quite beautiful. I just needed to be a lot more careful while driving and monitor my speed limit.

The sunsets were beautiful though and I am sharing some of the views I encountered while navigating through the crazy weather. Enjoy.

Quick shout out to Michael Jackson, one of my favorite performers growing up. Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana. I’ve only seen him once. It was in 1989 in Harlem, NY as I was leaving school. He was emerging from the sunroof to wave and say hi to some fans and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It made my day! Heck, it made my year. I have a feeling that at the time I saw him, he was in New York filming “Beat It”. Here is a great article that gives some insight into how the music video came to fruition.

We lost MJ much too soon but thank goodness we still have his amazing music.

Much love.

We are definitely in Kansas.

We are definitely in Kansas.

“There are moments that I’ve had some real brilliance, you know. But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough. I never felt I played the great part. I never felt that I directed the great movie. And I can’t say that it’s anybody’s fault but my own.”
-Dennis Hopper

WELCOME TO KANSAS: THE SUNFLOWER STATE

My buddy and I took turns driving across the state of KANSAS end to end, from the west side to the east. If you like randomly placed billboards, pretty cloud formations and falling asleep at the wheel, quickly drop your life and move to this super flat state. I promise that, if anything, you’ll have many stories to tell … or just ONE, LONG, BORING STORY.

According to my buddy Patrick: “If you’ve seen any of Kansas, you’ve seen all of Kansas.”

I hadn’t seen Patrick in about 5 years. He moved from Los Angeles to Dallas to be with the love of his life and continue pursuing a career in comedy. It’s been great catching up with a great friend and when you do drop your life and move to Kansas, make sure to take someone with you who can make you laugh out loud. We had a ball cracking jokes, sharing where we were in our lives and what we want to do in the future.

We both agreed that we both just wanted to get out of the flat countryside in the immediate future.

One thing I did notice about The Sunflower State were randomly placed billboards along the freeway for no reason at all. I mean, are these billboards going to change the world somehow? And who paid for them?

Two of my favorites are listed below.

“JESUS IS REAL”

“Adoption
not
Abortion”

Really? Just keep the McDonald’s billboards up please.

Despite the boring drive, Kansas did have some beautiful foliage along the 70 freeway. Check out my gallery below.

Oh one last thing. This picture. Patrick said that ‘Tonganoxie’ translates to: “Buffalo Dick Kansas”.
Hahahaha!!

I want this address!
I want this address!