After a few days of a revised itinerary then long driving, socializing and a day off the road, today we got back to the original schedule. It was great to have the spontaneous sidetrip, park in friends' driveway and use the trailer to give us the flexibility that is tough to get with other modes of travel (try asking Delta Airlines to take you to Clarkson, NE when your ticket says Pierre, SD... I'll tell you what will happen... nothing, that's what... you're going to Pierre).
Here's a shot I'm calling "one last farm panorama":
Today was a bit longer than originally planned -- 5 hours of driving -- but we are in the middle of things now... Palo, Iowa! Oh, you don't think that's the middle of things? Take a look at a map. We are four hours south of Minneapolis, four hours west of Chicago, four hours northeast of St. Louis. If that's not the middle of things, I don't know what is. Plus, we are smack dab next to Cedar Rapids!
Here is a shot of the lake (since we're at "Pleasant Creek" this may not be a lake at all... but rather a part of "Peasant Creek"... who cares, it's water and it seemed worth photographing to give you a sense of what it looks like here) which I can see through the open hatch of the Airstream as I write this:
Not much to report about today. The trip was long, but went smoothly (no broken parts on truck or Airstream as far as we know!). Iowa corn looks almost exactly the same as Nebraska corn. In both states it is healthy, plentiful and broken only by fields of soybeans. Here's a picture of Iowa corn:
Really? You believed that was Iowa corn? You see, I made my point... that's a pic of Nebraska corn. I didn't have any Iowa corn to share with you and I couldn't tell the difference, so I figured you couldn't either. Corn is corn and here in Io-braska, corn is everywhere!
Today we crossed the Missouri River. Tomorrow the Mississippi, officially putting us back in the Eastern US. The terrain is starting to change. Iowa has hills that are about the same height as Nebraska, but more closely packed (higher frequency or shorter wavelength for you scientists) and there are many more trees now. Tomorrow night we'll be in Illinois, near DeWitt.
More news then!
SC
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