Are we there yet?

So the Big Cornfield is a vast open space, where it seems to take at least two hours to get anywhere.  As a kid, going to the lake was easily a four hour trip.  Camp was a nine hour trip.  The nearest big city?  At least three and a half ('cause I refuse to count Omaha as a big city).  So it perplexes most people I know from the Cornfield when I tell them that I can hop on a bus in DC and be in downtown NYC in 4.5 hours.  They do the math and realize that in 4.5 hours, I will have traveled through four states and a District (5 states if you take the cheap route through Philly), all of which can be done while surfing the web (thanks Boltbus) or talking on one battery life of my cell.  You know where 4.5 hours gets me in the Cornfield?  Nebraska.  If your pedal is to the metal and you don't get a speeding ticket in Buchanan County, Iowa, it'll get to you Madison.  But by in large, 4.5 hours in the Cornfield gets you from one Cornfield to, maybe, one Soybean Field.

I'm happy I live in a part of the world where 4.5 hours gets me to so many amazing cities with so much incredible stuff to do.  And the transportation system out East is such that you can almost always find a way to get somewhere you need to go at just about any point in the day.   But as I sat on the bus, somewhere in the middle of New Jersey (it all looks the same from the bus), I couldn't help but realize that while 4.5 hours in the Big Cornfield is ACTUALLY 4.5 hours in a big cornfield, it's a beautiful cornfield that most don't stop and appreciate.  I personally find nothing serene about the drive from DC to NYC.  It is nothing but time spent stressed out (which is why I take the bus).  But that same time period, driving through the Cornfield, I find it mellow, calming, and even a little zen.  So while I'm happy that 4.5 hours takes me from one great city to another, I sort of wish I got the cornfield in between.