So the first day of this trip is now behind me……..and so far, so good.

Day 1 started with a relatively painless experience at EWR and then a pretty long layover in Chicago. The United Lounge at O’Hare was ehhhhhok. Apparently they’ve decided to follow Delta’s lead and offer up Mac ‘n Cheese plus soup. It just wasn’t as good as Delta’s offering in Atlanta. Anyway, who cares, right? United Lounges all suck and you should never pay to use them.

Landing in Iowa was actually a pretty big moment for me because right then and there, I got my 47th state.

After switching my car rental reservation from a minivan to a pretty lame (but not as lame as a minivan) Hyundai Sante Fe it was off to the races. I had only three hours to get from the airport to the “Field of Dreams” and then get to Effigy Mounds National Monument before it closed at 6 pm.

I made it. The Field of Dreams site is actually really cool. I had never seen the movie until I watched it on yesterday’s flight, but like everyone else I always knew the whole “if you build it, he will come” thing. The filming location looks exactly like the movie, as you might expect. The outfield wall really is a cornfield. What really makes it a must see destination though is that it is TOTALLY FREE. I mean, I was barely a fan of the movie and I would have happily paid a few dollars just to see the place. It’s also pretty easily accessible as it’s only about a three and a half hour drive from Chicago. You can easily make a day trip to here AND Effigy Mounds from the Windy City.

Speaking of Effigy Mounds, that was stop number two. This is a really interesting location that was basically used by American Indians as a burial site. Today it’s a preserved space with really nice forest hikes.

I’d already been to a place like this near St. Louis that is much bigger and more impressive looking from afar, but what makes Effigy Mounds so fascinating is that they created these burial mounds in the shapes of animals. I only got to see the one that looks like a bear, but there are lots more if you have the time.

Also you get a really good view of the Mississippi River from the overlooks at the site. Absolutely worth it to see this place.

From Effigy Mounds it was, at last, time to move to the completion of a mission I began just over seven years ago. State number 48, the last state I had to visit of the contiguous United States was Minnesota……..

…and I finally did it on my first day out here. Man, what a feeling. The border crossing where I went from Iowa into Minnesota was pretty remote. I was alone.

Well except for like 1,000 mosquitoes but I didn’t care. It was really amazing to be able to say that I’ve been to every one of the Lower 48 United States. Alaska and Hawaii are still to come, but those are “vacation destination” type of places that are not so different than going to the Bahamas or Europe. Amazing places to be sure (I’ll let you know firsthand about Alaska next week), but in some ways easier to get to than say, Nebraska. You have to REALLY WANT to get to Nebraska. And Delaware. And Maine. And freakin’ Minnesota. So it was really a big moment for me to get this done.

And that was Day 1.