Day 2: Middle America

We hit standstill traffic in Chattanooga, TN. We eventually turned off the car and just sat for an hour on the interstate. We started moving again and John was able to drive until about 1:30 or 2:30am, which was amazing. We usually never drive past midnight, so it was unusual that John was feeling awake enough to drive safely. I kept expecting his to start falling asleep, so I stayed awake to keep an eye on him. We had planned to camp in Tennessee, but it was late, totally dark, and raining, so we just kept driving. At some point our cell phones switched over to Central Time, but none of our watches or the clock in the car. We had a vague idea of what was happening when, but as the hours wore on it became harder to keep track. Also, no matter how long we drove we still seemed to have the same amount of hours to go to reach Nebraska. It was unexplainable and disheartening.
I took over driving when John needed to sleep, although I hadn't yet been able to sleep myself. At this point getting a hotel seemed pointless. Around 5:30/4:30am I pulled into a rest area and caught an hour or so of sleep. The driver's seat in our car doesn't recline, so it wasn't a very comfortable rest.
John woke up and was ready to start driving soon thereafter. We discovered we were at a reststop in Illinois with a very picturesque picnic area with tall trees and soft, green grass.
John restrapped the roof bag to the roof with a much better strap setup. This improved the gas mileage and helped keep the front of the bag from being pushed up into a giant windblock on the roof. Next, we got gas, filled the tires up with air, and reset the low tire pressure gauge. This seemed to fix the tire problem we had. The boys put the Mavic up over an adjacent canola field.
Then, we just kept driving. I kept trying to put on Things Fall Apart so we could finish it, but every time I would nod off for about 20 minutes. We didn't finish it.
In the afternoon, John needed a break from driving. Edon took over. We reached I-29 in Missouri and Iowa. It had been closed for months from the terrible Missouri River flooding and had just reopened 3 days earlier. Mile after mile revealed flooded farmland. There were so many grain silos that had burst and released there golden grain into the flood. It was incredible and sad to see.
Finally, after about 31 hours from leaving our house, we reached my sister's house near Omaha, NE. We got a house tour and were treated to an amazing and delicious hot meal of homemade minestrone soup and kalamata olive bread. It was just the thing we needed to get a second wind so we could go out and explore the area.
We drove to downtown Omaha to the Bob Pedestrian Bridge. On the way we saw a cop dragging a full-size deer to the side of the road. That was a bummer. The Bob Bridge is part of the American Discovery Trail, which John and I hope to complete in its entirety someday. It was fun to stand in two states at once and see the Missouri River rushing underneath.
Next, we visited the nearby Heartland of the America Park and walked around the lake. Supposedly, a fountain/light show was to begin at 8pm, but it never did. We headed back to my sister's and got showers. We played Jackbox games until my eyes wouldn't stay open. Finally, we all collapsed into bed and were able to sleep.