the midwest is a bitterly cold place

after two successful days on the road, we made it through Pennsylvania, Ohio,  Indiana, Illinois, and all the way to Iowa before our first major hiccup. the transmission was giving Ben a real headache, randomly deciding to prevent the gas pedal from accelerating or even revving the engine. (people in the know in the world of engines and vehicles, i apologize for my lack of proper vocabulary. i really don't know what I'm talking about except that the gas pedal was being really flaky on when it would do its job.)

our initial response was, well...

after being redirected to a truck service shop in Des Moines, we turned around to back track 30 miles east. which took us over an hour. turns out a storm was right behind us headed west, forcing cars off the road both voluntary to avoid the icy roads, and involuntary such as the unfortunate cars involved with a 20 car pile up. Comparing to the truck troubles, we decided perhaps we weren't in such a bad spot after all.

While waiting for the mechanics to do there thing we waited patiently at the burger king/truck stop next door for an hour. Which turned into two. and then three and eventually four when several card games and many soda refills later we heard back from the fine truck gents. they cleaned a thing and checked another, informed us it may or may not be fixed, and sent us on our way.  of course by "on our way" i mean to the hotel next to the burger king/truck stop. tomorrow we'll head to Omaha with fingers crossed the truck cooperates.

spending day two in Iowa got me wondering what exactly one does in Iowa. if you're like this lady, you become a sculptor. of butter.

a little weird. but as my mother tells me, "it takes all kinds".

after listening to the weather for tomorrow, which is expected to be worse than today, i might be better off making a new life for myself here in the freezing cold Midwest making my own dairy sculptures. we'll see.

so far i'm really enjoying this temporary trucker lifestyle. having an awesome traveling companion is a definite bonus.  we hung out with one of ben's coworkers who is also making the trek west last night.  he was a very interesting guy with all sorts of fascinating tales of base jumping, "driving truck" and working at a kids camp.  He's quite the go-getter. I'm not one for new years resolutions, but he told me something i plan on taking to (my procrastinating) heart. "someday is getting really busy, you should pick a sooner date."