road trip
I arrived in Salt Lake City a week ago after a 4-day road trip across the country from Brooklyn with my mother. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
Gary, Indiana was the first interesting stop. I wanted to see Michael Jackson's boyhood home. The neighborhood is partially abandoned. On his street, many homes are boarded, while on surrounding streets earth is reclaiming land. Large swaths of empty overgrown lots made it feel post-apocalyptic.
Jackson Family home.
House across the street from Jackson Family home.
In the neighborhood around the corner, so much decay.
I hope Gary will experience a renaissance.
Next stop was Chicago. It's changed so much since I was there last in 2009. We had lunch at my aunt's house and picked up an umbrella stand. Long story, short version: My mom's dad gave it to my dad's sister when they moved into the house nearly 40 years ago because he was friends with the family who built the house. Now they're selling the house and the umbrella stand will stay in the family. It was a delightful visit.
From there we continued on, stopping in Iowa City to see the University of Iowa. Love the eclectic mix of architecture on campus, especially Hancher, the performing arts center by Pelli Clarke Pelli.
Arts Building West by Steven Holl was also a treat to see.
We continued on through the rolling hills of Iowa and spent the night in Des Moines, a little farther than halfway to SLC. We were both exhausted from two straight days of 8+ hours in the car. We had to drive across the busy state highway from our hotel (not because we were exhausted, but it wasn't pedestrian-friendly) to a Bennigan's (the other choices were Taco Bell, Wendy's or McDonald's) for a snack and a glass of wine.
Celebrating the halfway mark!
Rolling hills transitioned to cornfields.
Somewhere in Nebraska after all of the cornfields, the midwest starts becoming the west. It's stunning. I was driving, so not many pics.
Sinclair saddled up
The final night we stayed in Cheyenne, a great Old West town. We drove around a bit before dinner. I love all the old buildings and signs.
The next morning we stopped a few hours outside of Cheyenne for coffee. Not much was open except for Rifleman. I went in to ask the whereabouts of Penny's Diner. There were four rugged old timers sitting at the bar at 7:45am.
I thought only bars in New York are open at 6am, and on a Sunday to boot.
Some people think Wyoming is boring, but I think it is really beautiful. The iPhone doesn't really do it justice. Most of the 6.5 hours was spent in it. Desolate and magical.
We finally made it!
Autumn color in the mountains.
Woot! We reached our exit.