My best guy pal (Our families lived next door to each other in Virginia) went to graduate school in Ames and fell in love there. After graduation he got engaged and I was invited to the wedding. (For all those people out there that said you can’t have a best platonic guy pal- Poo on you!)

I drove to Iowa on my own from Denver, Colorado to prove that I COULD drive 12-13 hours straight. Oh, and because I was on a limited budget – hence no airplane ticket.

What I saw was beautiful. Granted things were a little frantic and I was only there one weekend, but everyone was very nice.

I got to know a little patch of woods quite intimately as I was crashing around through it during the bachelor party… No strippers! It was a paintball outing and for being the only gal there… I was pretty damn proud of myself for holding my own with the paintball gun. Yee Haw!

Just one bit of advice though… I don’t recommend doing it in shorts. (Hey! I didn’t know I was going to be doing commando paintball!!!)