Day 1: January 7th

January 7th marked the first day of the UW-Madison Alternative Break trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for tornado relief. Every day for the next week we hope to update interested readers about what's going on. We have an exciting week ahead of us..

The 9 of us met in the Helen C. White parking lot at 7am, where we divided our luggage and personnel between the two vans. 

We made a stop for breakfast about two hours in at a McDonald's in El Paso, IL. Two things interesting about the trip so far: how similar the United States seems as you travel down on the highway (lots of winter-browned grass), and how many franchises pop up literally everywhere. There is a McDonald's seriously like every five minutes. Isn't that crazy? You would think that each state would seem different. You know it isn't really that different but it's amazing how similar it is. When I was younger I had a puzzle of the United States. Illinois was green, but the state isn't all green. Neither is Wisconsin pink. Maybe that's just me :P

Anyway, we made another sightseeing/food stop in St. Louis, Missouri, where we saw the St. Louis Arch and ate at an Irish Pub called "The Dubliner." Apparently St. Louis is known for it's Italian food. Irish isn't really Italian but either way it was a fun stop.

We stopped somewhere in Arkansas for a place called "Memphis Best" so that's kind of a lie. How dare they! Just kidding. There was some fast food barbecue there, which was an alright dinner for a day stuffed from touristy food, which almost inevitably has to include a fast food franchise like McDonald's. McDonald's for president?

Next to Arkansas we drove through Tennessee. Memphis had quite the light show. Really pretty to see the lights at night.

Then Mississippi: a ride decorated with mucho forestry. At this point it was nearing midnight.

Finally  we landed at our destination in Tuscaloosa at about 2am. Everyone's very tired from a long and awesome day trotting our United Statesian square of the globe. We're sleeping in bunkbeds in two bedrooms of an apartment. Pretty nice accommodations. So far so good!