McAllister Heartland Tour: Day 1 - Driving Across America

This blog post is brought to you by the morons at Subway who don't know how to put points on my Subway Rewards card. I nearly have enough points for a free footlong sandwich, but none of the three locations we stopped at over our two-day drive knew how to use the points card. In fact, all three were confused that I was trying to use a Subway cash card which looks very similar to the rewards card. So, a warning for any who plan on driving through Wyoming, Nebraska or Iowa - Subways along I-80 in those states will not honor your Rewards Card. Okay, enough ranting for one post.

Amber and I planned well for our first crosscountry drive with Ashley. All of our packing was done before we went to bed on Thursday. We even crammed everything into the car that night so that our departure, early Friday morning, would be smooth.

Our preparations paid off greatly. I was able to get plenty of sleep for the 4am alarm. We showered, ate breakfast, and then started the delicate process of transporting Ashley from crib to carseat. Amber executed the transition perfectly, while I manned the lights - quietly turning them off behind them as they left the house. With a start of the car the dashboard clock glowed "5:47" as we pulled out of our parking lot.

The rays from the morning sun flooded over the Wasatch Mountains about an hour later as we made our way east on Highway 84 just south of Ogden. Amber woke up right around the Wyoming stateline. As we approached Rock Springs Ashley joined us with a laugh and a smile. From the smell of things we figured Ashley brought something else with her, but we found that it was just the smell of Wyoming.

Feeding and changing a six-month old child adds complexity to driving stops. We learned a lot during that first stop in Rock Springs. For one, nothing about truck stops is compatible with babies. Secondly, McDonald's tables can come in very handy to let a wiggly baby kick.

Moving on down the road to Cheyenne we noticed that Ashley was taking the multiple hours confined to her carseat extremely well. In fact, during the first day of driving Ashley was perfect. In Cheyenne we found a park to allow Ashley to eat in relative privacy and to give everyone the chance of getting out of the car.

After Cheyenne we crossed the Nebraska state line and the Central Time Zone. We joined the Perego's and Geoff in North Platte, NE for the night.