One month ago, I stowed away with my parents as they traveled to Idaho to visit Strong Family West — and this time, instead of flying, we made it a road trip.  Naturally, I took pictures.

First: yes, I know you don’t remember seeing a Day 1 post; that’s because there wasn’t a Day 1 post.  We spent the first day driving from Michigan to Nebraska, and I didn’t take a single picture because AHHHH HOW CAN THERE POSSIBLY BE SO MUCH CORN IN THE WORLD MAKE IT STOP!

So, on to Day 2.  It started in Nebraska, a state that lives in constant fear of a blistering heat wave that would result in acres and acres of popcorn covering the landscape.  I know, I know: everybody makes jokes about Nebraska, so why am I joining the crowd?  Well, because I was egged on by this message over the door of a Nebraska gas station:

Further down the road we stopped at another gas station, and we were thrilled to encounter Nebraska football coaching legend Tom Osborne!

Oh, come on: as a Michigan fan, I’m obligated to make Nebraska football jokes, and I couldn’t pass on that option.

While doz…uh, driving through Nebraska, we were surprised to discover a non-traditional crop growing among the acres of corn.  It seems somebody buried a whole bunch of box fans and covered them with Miracle-Gro, and this was the result:

There’s no word yet on whether or not the fields of giant fans have succeeded in making the state any cooler.

After we escaped the ponderous clutches of Nebraska, we drove across southern Wyoming — travel tip: there are maybe three gas stations on I-80 in Wyoming — and ended up in Salt Lake City.  We didn’t have much time to see the SLC sights, so we chose to see the most famous sight in the city: Temple Square, featuring the LDS Temple.

The temple is very tall and very white, but I’m pretty sure that’s all it has in common with Conan O’Brien.  (Well, I guess it’s not actually white.  But I really wanted to use that joke, and it does look sort of white in the first photo.)

Hey, look!  Here’s a picture of my dad being a tourist!

Among the other buildings in Temple Square is Assembly Hall, a building that has absolutely nothing to do with the home of Indiana University basketball.  And if you stand in the right place, you get a strange view of that 132-year-old building with a decidedly not 132-year-old building looming over it.

Finally, as we were driving through downtown SLC, we spotted a sign that sends chills down the spines of the Woodward Dream Cruise organizers:

I understand the idea, but I’m confused about something: the top of the sign says “traffic congested area,” but the bottom of the sign specifies a time period that is typically associated with minimal traffic.  Is this sign schizophrenic, or do the residents of SLC really clog the streets between 11 P.M. and 4 A.M.?

Come back soon — or, you know, sometime — for Day 5, where I explain why there is no Day 4.  Oh, and some other stuff happened, too.