Muhammad Saad Sarwar
My friend from high school had invited me to visit Iowa after he visited me in Oklahoma while I was studying in the University of Central Oklahoma. He had recently transferred to Iowa State University for a bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from Pakistan. My university on interstate I-35 was a good nine hours by car from Iowa State which was also located off I-35. On my way I had to cross Kansas and Missouri into Iowa. I had never been to Kansas or Iowa before although I had traveled through Missouri on my way to New York City on a previous trip. I had also not traveled north on I-35 from Oklahoma City while I had traveled south on I-35 from Oklahoma City to Dallas on the way to Houston. I-35 is a major interstate highway that runs all the way from Texas to Minnesota bisecting the US into half. Many famous universities are also located off I-35 like the University of Oklahoma, University of North Texas, Iowa State and University of Kansas to name a few. I-35 has also been called the drug route because of millions of dollars worth drug caches being caught sourced from Mexico on this major US artery.
The plan was to start the journey at night. Since I was traveling alone, I did not want to get caught in the Kansas City downtown (hood) at the middle of the night, which would have been the case had I started travel during the day. The black neighborhoods (hoods) can be very unfriendly places after dark. Also, it was my first ever journey
to that part of the world so I was cautious. I slept during the day or tried to, to make up for the future loss of sleep at night. Also, so that I am alert for the night. I put the necessary belongings in my car, locked my apartment. Went to the neighborhood Wal-mart, got some food for the journey, which included cans of Pepsi and chips. I always drink Pepsi or Coke while traveling because of high caffeine content which I thought would keep me awake during the course of the journey. It would be a long drive for 600 miles almost, to Iowa.
I was thinking of starting the tourney a little after midnight but it was almost 2 o’ clock when I started. My car Mazda MX-6 which was later dubbed as “the Red-submarine” by my fellow international students in Indiana University of Pennsylvania would be my lone companion for the night. I like driving so it is always a good feeling when I have the wheel of my car in my hands especially for a long drive such as to Iowa. It adds to the enjoyment when there are little or no cars on the road such as night when I was driving and one can theoretically push the pedal to the metal if one is smart enough to know when to do so (watching out for the police of course if over-speeding so as not to get a ticket). Fortunately, I had figured out a way to drive fast (above the speed limit) without coming under the radar. The trick is not to drive fast while you are approaching a major city say for example Kansas City or Philadelphia. Cops usually operate in a radius around major cities. In between major cities you can potentially ignore speed limits while being cautious enough. I have traveled around 40 thousand miles in the US while I was a student and I never got an over-speeding ticket, which is a testament to the trick. My speed record with my Mazda was around 120 miles per hour while I was traveling through West Virginia. Not a mind-blowing speed but I think, it’s a decent one. Enough about driving fast. A word of caution though, driving fast once in a blue moon is fine, but if anybody makes it a habit, it would be a deadly game. So, drive fast at your own peril. Have seen many people being victims of such a bravado, so not advocating breaking speed limits as a hobby, especially if you own a motorbike.
Eight minutes drive from my university to I-35 and I was on my way. It was a moon lit night and I could see the plains of Oklahoma on either side of the highway. The highway was not in the best of shapes north of Oklahoma City and in Kansas it was a little worse. Not many towns in Oklahoma on my way to Kansas’ border. First town I came across was Guthrie a historic town, once capital of Oklahoma, famous for an old Free Masonic temple. Another town I passed by was Ponca City, only known for a famous restaurant by the airport where food loving people from all over Oklahoma and beyond would fly just to eat there.
In Kansas, the terrain changed from plain plains to curvy plains. It was a very unique kind of terrain. Kansas it seemed was not a well populated area. Driving at night could not see virtually anybody on the road. Bats were the only animate objects that I could see and thousands of them flew when I passed through any underpass. In a moonlit night, the whole ambiance had a surreal feel to it. Adding to it were the road side lakes or swamps might be a better word to describe those lakes. The trees were drowned one third of there heights in the water and the branches did not have many leaves on them. The reflection of the moon in the lake and the shadow of the branches of the trees would remind of Scooby-Dooby Do show. Signs of deer area and drive slow were also posted on the road in some segments. I narrowly avoided a dead deer while driving, apparently a road kill by an earlier car. In short, the experience was surreal.
Seeing a McDonald restaurant off the highway, I decided to pull over and take a break from the driving. Had the many urgencies of anatomy like food and rest-room. Also, I thought it would be good to make a call to my parents and let them know where I was. Apparently, I had not informed them about my drive to Iowa. Nobody was there to receive the call, so I called my uncle in Saudi Arabia instead. Feasted on a fish sandwich and I was on the road again.
Wichita, Kansas was the only major city I passed through during the night with the lights in the horizon signaling the onset of this city. The only thing I knew about this city was the university known as Wichita State University where some of the students I had known had come from.
An hour after dawn break I could see the small highway turning from four lane to six and more with the early morning traffic increasing every minute. I was approaching the suburbs of Kansas City. Although Kansas City seemed big but imposing it was not. The thing I feared most that is getting lost in the cris-crossing of roads in this major city did not happen. Kansas City roads clearly marked the I-35 route which led me to Missouri. There was also some kind of ship museum in Kansas that I vaguely remember passing through.
Missouri seemed to be mainly grassy plains. The only thing that happened while I drove through Missouri that I remembered was the over-speeding incident. I had been driving around 10 miles above speed limit which was legal in the US, when a cops car coming from the opposite direction suspected I must have been over-speeding a bit more. I had spotted the car through my rear view mirror and could see it turning through the grass in the middle of the two roads on to mine heading northbound. I reduced the speed to exactly the speed limit while the police car followed me for a couple of miles somewhat hiding behind another car. After observing me for sometime the cop turned again to the southbound I-35 lane and the speed ticket (although I was not technically over-speeding because ten miles above speed limit in the unwritten rule is OK, although some people still get ticketed) seemed avoided. On my way I passed through Kearney in Missouri, for a brief moment I thought I might be passing through Nebraska, since one campus of the University of Nebraska was in Kearney, adding to the tally to the number of states I had visited in the US. But then I realized it was a city in Missouri. Iowa was not too far away now.
Entering into Iowa I could see the plains turning to little hilly kind of lush green area. The architecture in Iowa also seemed a bit different. It was a sunny day and the sun beamed through intermittent clouds. Plenty of cars on the road, seemed kind of a holiday atmosphere. After a few hours of driving I was in Des Moines, Iowa, the capital of Iowa. The city seemed like any big city but the city did not have a feel of crampiness like Kansas City. The highways seemed to have plenty of land to wind through the open expanse of the city. Ames was not far away where Iowa State was located. A lot of construction was going on, on the highway which considerably slowed my progress. I called my friend to tell him about my approach and he guided me through the city of Ames to Iowa State. The university was big as most US universities are, known for its prowess in computers and engineering fields. I was guided right to his apartment where my friend was waiting waiving to me. The long journey had come to an end, for now.
Click here for a short version, published in the Dawn Magazine: GLOBETROTTING: Highway to Iowa
My friend from high school had invited me to visit Iowa after he visited me in Oklahoma while I was studying in the University of Central Oklahoma. He had recently transferred to Iowa State University for a bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from Pakistan. My university on interstate I-35 was a good nine hours by car from Iowa State which was also located off I-35. On my way I had to cross Kansas and Missouri into Iowa. I had never been to Kansas or Iowa before although I had traveled through Missouri on my way to New York City on a previous trip. I had also not traveled north on I-35 from Oklahoma City while I had traveled south on I-35 from Oklahoma City to Dallas on the way to Houston. I-35 is a major interstate highway that runs all the way from Texas to Minnesota bisecting the US into half. Many famous universities are also located off I-35 like the University of Oklahoma, University of North Texas, Iowa State and University of Kansas to name a few. I-35 has also been called the drug route because of millions of dollars worth drug caches being caught sourced from Mexico on this major US artery.
The plan was to start the journey at night. Since I was traveling alone, I did not want to get caught in the Kansas City downtown (hood) at the middle of the night, which would have been the case had I started travel during the day. The black neighborhoods (hoods) can be very unfriendly places after dark. Also, it was my first ever journey
to that part of the world so I was cautious. I slept during the day or tried to, to make up for the future loss of sleep at night. Also, so that I am alert for the night. I put the necessary belongings in my car, locked my apartment. Went to the neighborhood Wal-mart, got some food for the journey, which included cans of Pepsi and chips. I always drink Pepsi or Coke while traveling because of high caffeine content which I thought would keep me awake during the course of the journey. It would be a long drive for 600 miles almost, to Iowa.I was thinking of starting the tourney a little after midnight but it was almost 2 o’ clock when I started. My car Mazda MX-6 which was later dubbed as “the Red-submarine” by my fellow international students in Indiana University of Pennsylvania would be my lone companion for the night. I like driving so it is always a good feeling when I have the wheel of my car in my hands especially for a long drive such as to Iowa. It adds to the enjoyment when there are little or no cars on the road such as night when I was driving and one can theoretically push the pedal to the metal if one is smart enough to know when to do so (watching out for the police of course if over-speeding so as not to get a ticket). Fortunately, I had figured out a way to drive fast (above the speed limit) without coming under the radar. The trick is not to drive fast while you are approaching a major city say for example Kansas City or Philadelphia. Cops usually operate in a radius around major cities. In between major cities you can potentially ignore speed limits while being cautious enough. I have traveled around 40 thousand miles in the US while I was a student and I never got an over-speeding ticket, which is a testament to the trick. My speed record with my Mazda was around 120 miles per hour while I was traveling through West Virginia. Not a mind-blowing speed but I think, it’s a decent one. Enough about driving fast. A word of caution though, driving fast once in a blue moon is fine, but if anybody makes it a habit, it would be a deadly game. So, drive fast at your own peril. Have seen many people being victims of such a bravado, so not advocating breaking speed limits as a hobby, especially if you own a motorbike.
Eight minutes drive from my university to I-35 and I was on my way. It was a moon lit night and I could see the plains of Oklahoma on either side of the highway. The highway was not in the best of shapes north of Oklahoma City and in Kansas it was a little worse. Not many towns in Oklahoma on my way to Kansas’ border. First town I came across was Guthrie a historic town, once capital of Oklahoma, famous for an old Free Masonic temple. Another town I passed by was Ponca City, only known for a famous restaurant by the airport where food loving people from all over Oklahoma and beyond would fly just to eat there.
In Kansas, the terrain changed from plain plains to curvy plains. It was a very unique kind of terrain. Kansas it seemed was not a well populated area. Driving at night could not see virtually anybody on the road. Bats were the only animate objects that I could see and thousands of them flew when I passed through any underpass. In a moonlit night, the whole ambiance had a surreal feel to it. Adding to it were the road side lakes or swamps might be a better word to describe those lakes. The trees were drowned one third of there heights in the water and the branches did not have many leaves on them. The reflection of the moon in the lake and the shadow of the branches of the trees would remind of Scooby-Dooby Do show. Signs of deer area and drive slow were also posted on the road in some segments. I narrowly avoided a dead deer while driving, apparently a road kill by an earlier car. In short, the experience was surreal.
Seeing a McDonald restaurant off the highway, I decided to pull over and take a break from the driving. Had the many urgencies of anatomy like food and rest-room. Also, I thought it would be good to make a call to my parents and let them know where I was. Apparently, I had not informed them about my drive to Iowa. Nobody was there to receive the call, so I called my uncle in Saudi Arabia instead. Feasted on a fish sandwich and I was on the road again.
Wichita, Kansas was the only major city I passed through during the night with the lights in the horizon signaling the onset of this city. The only thing I knew about this city was the university known as Wichita State University where some of the students I had known had come from.
An hour after dawn break I could see the small highway turning from four lane to six and more with the early morning traffic increasing every minute. I was approaching the suburbs of Kansas City. Although Kansas City seemed big but imposing it was not. The thing I feared most that is getting lost in the cris-crossing of roads in this major city did not happen. Kansas City roads clearly marked the I-35 route which led me to Missouri. There was also some kind of ship museum in Kansas that I vaguely remember passing through.
Missouri seemed to be mainly grassy plains. The only thing that happened while I drove through Missouri that I remembered was the over-speeding incident. I had been driving around 10 miles above speed limit which was legal in the US, when a cops car coming from the opposite direction suspected I must have been over-speeding a bit more. I had spotted the car through my rear view mirror and could see it turning through the grass in the middle of the two roads on to mine heading northbound. I reduced the speed to exactly the speed limit while the police car followed me for a couple of miles somewhat hiding behind another car. After observing me for sometime the cop turned again to the southbound I-35 lane and the speed ticket (although I was not technically over-speeding because ten miles above speed limit in the unwritten rule is OK, although some people still get ticketed) seemed avoided. On my way I passed through Kearney in Missouri, for a brief moment I thought I might be passing through Nebraska, since one campus of the University of Nebraska was in Kearney, adding to the tally to the number of states I had visited in the US. But then I realized it was a city in Missouri. Iowa was not too far away now.
Entering into Iowa I could see the plains turning to little hilly kind of lush green area. The architecture in Iowa also seemed a bit different. It was a sunny day and the sun beamed through intermittent clouds. Plenty of cars on the road, seemed kind of a holiday atmosphere. After a few hours of driving I was in Des Moines, Iowa, the capital of Iowa. The city seemed like any big city but the city did not have a feel of crampiness like Kansas City. The highways seemed to have plenty of land to wind through the open expanse of the city. Ames was not far away where Iowa State was located. A lot of construction was going on, on the highway which considerably slowed my progress. I called my friend to tell him about my approach and he guided me through the city of Ames to Iowa State. The university was big as most US universities are, known for its prowess in computers and engineering fields. I was guided right to his apartment where my friend was waiting waiving to me. The long journey had come to an end, for now.
Click here for a short version, published in the Dawn Magazine: GLOBETROTTING: Highway to Iowa
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