Southward bound!

---

Blog travelers, the Road Avenger has finally turned south! Yesterday was the longest traveling day of this entire trip. Jess and I calculated that today's and tomorrow's driving time combined totals yesterday's driving time. Our foot was on the pedal for a total of 13ish hours. Today's pace was much more relaxed. We rose at an acceptable hour and was on the road at 10am (just a reminder, we are still in SD at this point). We crossed the boarder of our 9th state, Iowa, to pay a visit to WinnaVegas. Casino #2!! A little gem surrounded by miles of corn and little else....ok nothing else. Had a photo opp with "ain't nothing but a hound prairie dog" played the reels and were on our way! Next stop is a little known metal sculpture affectionally called "Spider Bug". I would say that only .2%!o(MISSING)f the US population knows about it. It's a Volkswagen Beetle supported by 8 metal legs. You can find this sculpture in someone's front yard tucked away in Avoca, IA. Population of more porch swings than people. After a quick pitstop at the Dairy Queen (she said sarcastically), we crossed the boarder of our 10th state, Nebraska, to visit Chocolatier Blue. CB creates their own recipes with top notch ingredients. If you want to try a morsel they give you an entire sample! Jess & I got a mixture including banana split, hazelnut, pistachio, & peanut butter! To die!! During the drive we entered our 11th state, Missouri, we will come back to it later. And now a bitter sweet moment, we crossed in to our 12 & final state, Kansas. We were here on a mission and that mission was to visit Oklahoma Joes. They are listed as the #1 BBQ place in KS. Anthony Bourdain listed it as one of the 13 places you must eat at before you die. Well I can mark it off my list! I had the pulled pork, baked beans and potato salad. Could have done without the potato salad, but everything else was finger lickin'! There was a 30 min line to wait when we arrived and probably a longer one after we left. By the way, it's in a gas station.....no lie.... After our bellies were happy and full we left to go home at Harrah's in Kansas City, MO. This would be our 3rd casino. Tomorrow we have brief stops and then homeward bound....

---