Chicago to Nebraska a.k.a. A Corn Field

Unable to find a couch surfing spot in Chicago, we drove about 20 miles outside of the city to a motel in DeKalb. The next morning began our quest through Illinois and Iowa until we reached our first couch surfing destination in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Now, when I say there were only corn fields the entire drive to Nebraska, this is not an exaggeration. Driving through hundreds of miles of corn fields is a hypnotizing effort...if someone snapped their fingers while we were driving we probably would've fallen asleep or danced to Ricky Martin music.

We get to Grand Island, Nebraska and funny story, it's not an island; there's just as much corn in the "city" of Grand Island as there was driving down the interstate. Anyway, we get to the house a little early and the four of us are just hacky-sacking outside until Abigail, our host, drives up and tells us we look creepy. We meet her inside and find out that she is an aid for a mentally disabled woman named Emily. The house is actually Emily's but her parents allow Abigail to have people over.

Not too much later, Abigail had to help Emily get ready for bed and then we all had dinner and just talked for hours over a few beers. She said that her job with Emily is tough because it's pretty much a 24/7 commitment and her social life has really taken a hit. She wasn't bitter or anything and you could really tell she really liked what she was doing despite some of the drawbacks.

Originally, the Aussie's and us had planned to part ways after our stay in Nebraska. They wanted to hitchhike north to Yellowstone and check out that whole area. After learning that we were going to Boulder, CO they decided to stay with us until we left Boulder because: A). Boulder is supposed to be awesome, and B). the chances of getting picked up Nebraska were slim to none after Abigail told us about the people from that area    (oy). Regardless, we were glad to have the Aussie's come to Boulder with us because we were becoming fast  friends and it gave us an excuse to say "cheers" to everything.

The morning we left Abigail's house everybody felt great. She made us all beds and prepared breakfast for us.  We woke up pretty late after driving about 30 hours in 2 days so she wasn't around to say goodbye, she had to take Emily to work and run some errands after that. We left her a small thank you note and then left at around noon, Boulder bound. It was great having Abigail as our first couch surfing host and it's gunna be tough probably never seeing her again. Whatevs, Boulder should be good because it's the first place we get to settle down for a bit and actually take in everything. Until then...