RunAcrossTheUSA.com

[Brandon]

It's been a long time since you heard from me.

Tonight we're living it up at the West Burlington, Iowa Americ-inn, enjoying some wireless internet access on the laptop. The original plan for tonight was to try to see "Cinderella Man" in the theater next door, but they aren't even showing it, and we got here about 20 minutes later than all of the other movies started, so once again our plans to catch a movie are foiled.

There is so much stuff we planned to do tonight--answer emails, do laundry, chill in the hot tub--but we'll get almost none of that stuff done. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up and relax more when my family meets us on Wednesday (which is pretty exciting for me).

We got a good start today after our "Free Beer and Hot Wings" interview, which always seems to get us motivated. It's incredible to see how much support they are garnering for us. We really appreciate all they have done for us and enjoy talking to them.

For those of you who missed my "knife incident" explanation, all you really need to know is that in the end we ate the apple, but my hand is still here. I've lost my knife privileges for a while, so I'll have to gnaw through some things for a while. Just a little update on my hand--it's healing well, but I still have it bandaged up. I'm going to have a couple really sweet scars, which almost makes it worth the pain and hassle. I cleaned it out really well the morning after in a K-mart bathroom, which was pretty tough because I still hadn't eaten much and was ready to pass out. Look for some video in the future of me cleaning it out.

Today was almost unbearably hot, but we tried to stay as hydrated as possible, which was tough considering we saw now gas stations or stores for about 30 miles. By the end of the day we were both exhausted and really thirsty, but I think we were just uncomfortable and not in any real danger. I don't know what the actual temperature was, but our "strollmometer" was at 117 for a couple hours during the hottest part of the day.

We crossed the "Mighty Mississippi" river today and left Illinois behind us, ready to face all the corn Iowa has to offer.

I have to let Matt take care of some stuff now, so goodbye. I don't know when I'll be able to post again, but I hope we'll have more opportunities soon.

Thanks again for all the support

Brandon