Basic b**** road trip recap

For a few years now, I've been talking to friends about wanting to drive to eastern Iowa in the fall and check out the changing leaves along the Mississippi River.  I could have made the drive alone just fine, but I decided it'd be more fun with company, so I waited until I found someone else who was interested in this journey. I finally found a co-pilot and this past Sunday, we headed out. Due to the highly cliche nature of our trip, we decided to call it the Basic Bitches Road Trip and we embraced the theme with boots, fall-themed beverages, and exclamations about things "bitches" like. 

We left my place at 7:30 a.m. and stopped at a local coffee shop for sugary caffeine fixes -- a Sweet Georgia Brown (espresso, brown sugar, honey, and steamed milk) for her and an almond breve for me.

We listened to various mix CDs, and even broke out 'N Sync's No Strings Attached album.  Because why not?

At one point, we were behind a Google Maps car!  It was kind of fun seeing one in real life.

We were both thrilled to see the beautiful Mississippi River.  The colors weren't very vibrant (I think they'll peak later this week), but there were still bursts of red and orange to delight us. In hindsight, we should have stopped to take some photos, but we were just kind of in the moment, taking in the colors and waving to the river.

Around noon, we stopped at Kalona Brewing Company for lunch and beer, of course.  I had the meatloaf with a side of beer mac and cheese.  My flight included Dubbel Night Vision, Pre-Op Pale Ale, Resurrection Brown Ale, and Start-Up Stout.  I also tried a few of Savannah's because we share beer.

We left Kalona full but happy and continued on our journey to the Amanas.  The route was a little ... rural ... and we were pretty sure Google was sending us on a route to be killed by hillibillies. Or the Amish.

Finally, we made it to civilization and stopped at our second brewery of the day, Millstream.  I enjoyed their Oktoberfest while Savannah had an Imperial Pumpkin Stout and a Back Roads Stout.  The second one was pretty appropriate in name considering our drive there.

After a quick stop for gas, we hit the road to continue west, heading for home.  We sang along to an 80s Ladies mix -- which included Pat Benatar, Wilson Phillips, and Cyndi Lauper -- as well as Madonna's Immaculate Collection. Winning soundtrack if you ask me. By the way, 80s pop lyrics were so dramatic!

Not ready to end our Sunday Funday, we ended the trip at Della Viti, a self-serve wine bar here in Des Moines and were back home by 5:30 p.m.

To sum it up:
10 hours
2 breweries
1 self-serve wine bar
1 very rural drive
Many laughs and good memories

It was a fantastic road trip, and I'd love to make it an annual thing.