Road to Loudwire Music Festival, Day Eight: 500 Miles to KC

The inaugural edition of Loudwire Music Festival is set for June 26-28, 2015, at Grand Junction, Colorado. Ahead of the fest, we’re hitting the road in a 2016 Kia Sorento, traveling the states and finding new adventures as we make our way from New York City to Grand Junction. Where will we go? What will we see? Who will we run into? Follow along right here at Loudwire to find out, and make sure to keep an eye on #RoadToLoudwire on Twitter and Instagram.

When it comes to high-mileage road trips, one thing is certain: Cruise control is amazing. It might not be necessary, but it makes life much, much easier. Today (June 22), Steve and I drove from Chicago to Kansas City, which added more than 500 miles to the Sorento in about eight hours.

Mostly highway driving, the Sorento's cruise control was welcomed on today's jaunt. In fact, with the 2016 model of this car, it has an immensely helpful feature that actually senses cars in front of you and automatically slows down on its own. Clearly, the machines are taking over ... and we're okay with it.

With such a busy day on the road, the most important thing to us -- besides maintaining a steady speed -- was music. We pushed the Clari-Fi sound system to its limits, and it never stuttered. Whether it was Weezer or Anthrax, the music sounded pristine from the moment we left Chicago to when we rolled into KC (make sure to check out our latest Spotify playlist below).

Even though the day was stacked with driving and driving and driving and driving -- there isn't a whole lot to do between Chicago and Kansas City besides throw back a few energy drinks and munch on some jerky -- the night is shaping up to be a memorable one. We are heading to the Midland Theatre in Downtown Kansas City to see a very special and sold-out gig with the Smashing Pumpkins (billed as "an acoustic-electro evening").

We'll definitely recap that experience -- and anything else that happens tonight in Kansas City -- in tomorrow's Road to Loudwire update, but until then ... Steve, pass the beef jerky!!

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, Steve is getting a lot of work done in the front seat.)