Day 9: July 13, 2016

Davenport, IW to Bellevue, NE

Checking in tonight from Bellevue, Nebraska! We’re staying here with a friend of mine from Benedictine College. Hannah and I were suite-mates from Suite Q back in 2008. It’s amazing to see her now totally rocking mommy-hood with her 3 kids all under almost 3. What a gift to reconnect after all these years!

The beautiful gals of Suite Q at Benedictine College. 2008…how is this already 9 years ago?!

Driving Through the Heartland of America

We started off early around 9:45am and drove through Iowa and with every stop we commented to each other how pleasantly surprised we were. It’s not all cornfields and hick-towns around here. It is a well-kept state and had some fancy malls too. The drive, with rolling farmland, windmills, and blue skies (for the most part), reminded us a bit of PEI, and therefore felt familiar and nice. We even saw a plane cut super low across the highway right in front of us only to turn around and head towards the fields. It was a crop-duster! So neat! We also saw three over-sized trucks hauling what looked like a massive white whale from a distance. It turned out they were windmill blades! I have never seen them up so close~they are enormous!!!

A Stormy Costco Stop

We ran into quite the lightning/thunderstorm and torrential rainfall as we neared Des Moines. Turns out there was a thunderstorm severe weather warning in effect. Oh joy. Not only did we worry about our soft cargo bag on our roof rack leaking in water, but also about visibility and hydroplaning. Luckily there was a Costco nearby. We stopped at in for a bite to eat while we waited out the rain and threw a tarp over our cargo carrier before heading inside. It was prime samples hour so we took the rounds trying this and that and picked up a few things for ourselves too (limited as we are soooo scarce on space).

Audrey loved trying all the samples while Dominic was a bit more difficult to please. He also didn’t like the idea of sitting right next to “Baby” in the shopping cart. What a funny boy! We were soaked from the dash in the rain from the parking lot to the store and the air-conditioning has us in shivers, but a few warm mozzarella sticks later and a walk around the store, we were pretty much dry and the rain had ceased.

One More Downpour

We hit another patch of really bad rainfall as we neared Omaha-so much so that I had to exit the highway after trying to drive through it for a bit. I simply couldn’t see the road and if you have ever worn contacts it was like they were cloudy and no matter how much I blinked or leaned forward to see, it was blurry. The locals and truckers didn’t seem to mind and were zooming past us. So scary. On our shopping list: Rainx and some Scotchgard for our canvas cargo bag. Oh and diapers too! We had stuffed over 2 bags of diapers into every pocket of space we could find in our car to save on room, and somehow, now at the midpoint of our trip we have run out! Luckily this rainstorm also passed by quickly and we were able to get back on the road as we were only 15 minutes away and so eager to settle in for the night!

Midpoint and a Change of Pace in our Trip

Speaking of midpoint we have passed our mileage midpoint today somewhere in between Davenport and Iowa City. We have also passed our midpoint of the amount of days in our road-trip. We should be arriving to our new home next Tuesday! Hooray!

Beginning tomorrow we begin the part of our journey where we’ll be on our own. For now there’s no one else we have lined up to be staying with. We’ve been scrambling to find a place to book for tomorrow night and the following night but we may just need to risk it and see how far we can get. Our hosts have suggested a few places in Nebraska before crossing into Colorado which we will look into in the morning. If any of you have any suggestions please let us know! We’ll be taking 80 West to 76W to 70W.

Much love and more pictures tomorrow! Keep those prayers coming!

xoxo #peitocaliforniaroadtrip #day9_davenporttobellevue

Practical Tips & Funny Stories of the Day

1. Rooftop Carrier: Soft or Hard? 
   1. We did a lot of research and agonized over this decision as we were preparing to make this trip. Brendon was practical. A soft bag was a fraction of the cost of a hard top and we could stuff it more since it’ll be malleable. I was concerned about rain (it seemed like from reviews after reviews and forums that no soft bag was really 100% waterproof). I was also concerned about burglars. All it would take would be a sharp knife and there would go all our things.
   2. We went back and forth and finally decided on the Cargoloc 32424 15-Cubic/Feet Deluxe Roof Top Waterproof Cargo Carrier, a decent sized soft rooftop carrier for about $60 CAD from Amazon.ca (currently $31.53 on Amazon.com).
2. Be Prepared for Rain:
   1. Rainex and good windshield wipers (we like our Bosch Icons).
   2. Scotchgard- for Cargo Carrier to help with water-proofing
   3. Umbrellas
   4. Tarp and some ratchet straps