(This post shall be very photo intensive because, frankly, the photos make a better story of Nashville, TN and Sioux City, SD than I ever could. This is a continuation of Moving Prep and Moving Day 1 posts)

Unfortunately, day two of the cross country started really, really early. Okay, scratch that, I don’t know if day one ever officially ended and day two started. The reason? The cats decided to be crackheads. All. Night. Long. I get that they were cooped up in a cage all day long and were excited and happy to be set free that night but seriously? I had no idea that I was a trampoline— the cats were jumping up and down and UP AND DOWN on us all night.

Then came the 3AM text message with the declaration of my friend who just became a Mom declaring “MY BOOBS HURT!”

Thanks for the memo.

After a sluggish morning of “my god it’s only day two” and gathering of the possessions, we hit a gas station and were on the road again. There were lots and lots of hills for my poor Corolla to climb in Tennessee. To pass the time, Hayley and I considered ramming a Whitman’s chocolate truck and stealing the contents:

But decided that the truck would, ultimately, win.

For a period of time Mack made himself a new friend:

And then there was corn fields. Corn fields followed by corn fields…. and construction:

The boys were less than impressed at being put in the car for a second day in a row. They were in for a major shock for the next few days, to say the least.

That day was full of lots of driving (obviously). I guess my impressions that day were the changing in the landscape yet… not. Don’t get me wrong, I love corn fields but they can only be so interesting. Especially when you’re stuck in construction through a majority of them and are like “We are there yet?” Also, listening to comedian who lacks in the comedy department tell her life’s story? I wanted to jump out of the car and rip the corn off the stalks and scream “I AM THE QUEEN OF THE CORN!” just to entertain myself for a while.

Luckily, night time came to us finally

What was amazing once the sun came down and as we drove through the dark corn fields of South Dakota was glancing over and seeing hundreds of fireflies fly out from the corn fields and descend towards the heavens with about five seconds of glow before vanishing. As two cars made their way in the dark, talking occasionally on the walkie talkie, it was kind of humbling seeing them glow in the vast darkness and realize how small you are in the great pattern of life you are yet how we all shine bright for a brief moment of time, in our own individual ways.

Side note: true story (and horrific after I talked about the beauty of the fireflies and my enjoyment in seeing them). As we were driving along, Hayley and I well beyond exhaustion, Bob walkie talkied us. Pausing our audio book (much to the annoyance of Hayley who got frustrated since I paused the audio book A LOT to walkie talkie the boys to share my random thoughts), I asked him to repeat. I guess one of those amazing fireflies hit Mack’s windshield when it was in mid-glow. So, as the boys were driving along suddenly they had glowing goo spread across their windshield. I think they timed it and the glowy-goo managed to stay shining for a good five minutes before, finally, it ended and that firefly’s shine was officially gone… along with his life, obviously.

I guess how to round up day two of the driving cross country was: boring, humbling, and beautiful. Although I was not looking forward to the drive cross-country, by day two I was able to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings and enjoy seeing parts of the country I have never seen before. Though I joke about the vast emptiness (and the creepiness of the corn fields) I learned to appreciate the beauty of the midwest and the slower pace that they seem to live by.

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