Boulder to Boston with a kitty on my tail

*Honda CRV packed with all of your childhood friend's stuff - check

*One new stray black kitten who the boyfriend is training to be a dog - check
*One little box for said kitten to poop in during the 36 hour non-stop car trip - check

*Animosity toward your friend and her boyfriend for making you move their asses to the boyfriend's new apartment while all you wanna do is lie in a dark corner being hungover and cracked out - check

I'd heard of good ingredients for a cross-country road trip, but my deep black heart told me these weren't going to be it.

Being unemployed at the time, I had jumped at the opportunity to go to Boulder, CO for a week while my friend, Annie, finished up her summer classes. Boulder in the summer is really ideal for anyone looking for a laid back scene, and good eats (or if you are a burnout, whatever). You've got the Flatirons for hiking, Boulder Creek for "tubing", and the Liquor Mart to help you truly enjoy the former two. It had been a relaxing week, and after the last night of hiking, tubing, and liquor marting, we spent the entire following morning bickering, bitching, and moving Annie's boyfriend Carlos' belongings into his new apartment. The entire process delayed our departure until about dusk that evening - if I had actually let people talk to me, it just may have taken a little less time.

In complete silence we headed out of Boulder on I-76 toward Nebraska. I remember initially thinking "sweet we get to drive in a straight line for 4 hours". However, thanks to the silence my mood created I was able to truly appreciate the beauty of traveling east from the Rocky Mountains at dusk toward the darkness and utter flatness of the U.S. Midwest. Looking back at the abruptness of the mountains is surreal.

The following 36 hours were a blur of greasy truck-stops (a true American tradition), smelly cat poop (and litter), crossing the Mississippi River (oops slept through that one), Little Red Corvettes (the Prince song not the car), desires to brush our teeth in a White Castle bathroom at 10am (followed by approximately 20 sliders), lots of "Kum & Go" gas marts (no, really), and even more no doze (truckers recommend). Whatever I thought driving across the U.S. was going to be - it wasn't. But there really isn't a wrong way to make the trip. The point is that it should be done, there is no better way to appreciate how massive our country really is, and to know when it really comes down to it, a truck stop is a truck stop is a truck stop.
P.S. I have the lamest sense of humor!