Sampling the Midwest

We hit the road about 5:30 this morning, with a couple of goals in mind: 1. Check as many states off our list as possible, with the hope of ending up in Wisconsin, and 2. Have a Progressive Dinner of sorts, in order to sample some of the dishes those states are known for, which basically amounts to various meats on various buns. We managed to hit five states--Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin--and sample iconic foods from two of those, plus we added in the Nebraska food, even though we haven't made it there yet. (The reason for this is that the restaurant we wanted to try doesn't appear to be on the western side of the state, where we will be later, but there was one in Kansas City, right across from the place we were already planning to stop for the Kansas BBQ.) We collected our food samples from all over and then saved them up for a picnic lunch at a lovely park in Des Moines. We laughed at ourselves the whole time and made such fun memories! Oh, and lest you think us to be true pigs, we only ordered a couple of each sandwich and then divided them six ways.

Before our official food tour even started, we stopped for a good ol' Southern breakfast in Garden City, MO

Kansas: burnt ends on a bun

Iowa: breaded pork tenderloin sandwich
(Those are Jeff's hands, to give you an idea of size.)

Nebraska: The Runza, a German hamburger with beef and cabbage and various toppings

Picnic in the park