Friday 3/26

 Well we're off and running on another road trip. Left around 9:30 after each getting our respective runs in for the day and headed south. It feels like you're making a ton of progress at first as it doesn't even take 2 hours to get to the Iowa border and Mason City is up pretty quick too. Stopped for some lunch at a Subway (thanks Jackie!) at a truck stop north of Ames and tried (and failed) not to judge the middle-aged white dudes with truckers caps that didn't even have a mask around their chin. Ames/Des Moines were up pretty quick too. Lots of traffic in Des Moines, to the point of actually getting a reduction of speed.

Dash is locked in and ready to roll

     Despite Iowa's small size, the leg from Des Moines to Council Bluffs seemed to drag out. I started getting nervous that we wouldn't be able to get to the barrel place I had wanted to check out with 4:00 fast approaching and we weren't even across the river yet. Once you get to the Missouri though, things move quickly, I didn't realize how close Omaha and Lincoln are together. After hesitating whether it was worth it, we did indeed stop at the "Midwest Barrel Co" to check them out and see if we could possibly fit one in the back of the car on the way back. This is a place I found on Etsy that sells used barrels for $80 that could then be turned into a rain barrel. The problem is that they are incredibly expensive to ship. Shipping doubles the cost and then some. 

     We had brought a roof box that I figured we could cram a bunch of stuff into if need be, but as we started talking to the guy and we eyed up the back of the car, it didn't seem worth it. Instead though, he mentioned that they ship pallets for cheaper to a lot of breweries. I happen to know the Dangerous Man owners so the plan is now to email them and see if they are cool that I ship to their place. So basically if I committed to 4, I could cut the price of shipping per barrel by half. They are very cheap to make into a rain barrel so I figure that I can just sell the other three on craigslist and at worst break even and possibly even make some money. Certainly a good summer project.

     Made it to Alex and Rachel's by 6 or so and enjoyed a great evening catching up over dinner. Jack, their 5-year-old loved Dash and made a formidable match for endless energy and enjoyment of the repetitive task of fetch. I bet they put in 2 solid hours together in the back yard. We've so rarely seen anyone for extended periods of time over the last year so simply being together with friends again was a treat. Even more so when it's people out of state that we don't see very often as it is.

     Road tripping is admittedly a lot of windshield time and today was no exception. But we made the most of it and had some experiences you couldn't otherwise have had if we'd have flown directly to our destination.