Travelling through the Heartland

Statistics are boring, but let's start with those: we started out this morning at 6:30 a.m. Stopped at Meijers, then spent almost 2 hours at a Flying J down the road where we were able to fill the fresh tank with new water and vinegar, then empty it and refill. THat solved the water issue. We also took apart the bed, and the cabover has been drying all day-- it appears to be quite dry by now. Joe also thinks he found the problem--a piece of rubber molding had been pulled out of its channel (perhaps by a tree during that trip down Betsy's lane?? Hmmm????) So we may have that licked too. We then hit the road again, and drove from Ohio through Indiana and Illinois, and crossed the Mighty Mississippi at about 6:30ish CDT. We are now at an Iowa DOT rest stop on I80, where free wifi is part of the greeting they give to visitors.

Snapshots of our day: Roxy loved the interlude at Flying J for 2 hours. Sniff sniff, roll in the grass, what could be better? Why are we getting back into that RV???

Indiana: the first sign is not "wecome to Indiana" but WORLD'S LARGEST FIREWORKS STORE". Yes, it was huge. We did not stop. It was immediately follwed by about a dozen billboards for Tom Raper's RVs-- THE COUNTRY'S LARGEST INDOOR RV SHOWROOM. Huge RV repair shop--112 bays!! Low Prices! Visit Our Showroom! We didn't stop there either (it WAS only about 10 a.m. on sunday--otherwise we might have been tempted.) Indiana must be the RV Capital of the World-- we passed about a half dozen humungous RV dealers.

Illinois: Lots of corn. Also lots of soybeans. Signs along the road procaimed "Not Mideast Oil, but Illinois Soybean fields!!!" Signs also informed us, in a familiar sing-song pattern: "When police cant'.... arrive on time.... what protects you....during the crime?.....Handguns Keep You Safe!!"

What Illinois city has 6 letters, including 4 of the 5 vowels? You guessed it: Peoria. Drove right through the heart of the city, despite their attempt to make us go around (how much traffic could there be in Peoria on the sunday evening of Labor Day weekend??) There is a beautiful river and waterfront right through the city--who knew? (Not this parochial east coast girl, anyway!) With a battleship wearing a banner: "Powered by Biodiesel".

Suicidal bird: Yes, our next wildlife encounter was quite shockingly sudden: a bird flew out of a field toward the Interstate and SMASHED into the side of Mo with an awful thud. We were quite upset and wondered what had gotten into it to do such a terrible thing. Perhaps its life in the soybean fields was disappointing? We weren't even speeding!

Mississippi River: what a perfect moment! I warned Joey to get out the camera (I was driving) and the sun was getting low enough to make the light very special. And just as we arrived at the bridge, the radio began Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun". The perfect upbeat proclamation of enjoyment of the moment. I sang along as we crossed the river.


View of the Mississippi River from our car window

Song list: Very inclusionary, including everything from Joni Mitchell to Dire Straights to Solomone Rossi's "Adon Olam", with a very healthy helping of Bruce and of course, the Deltones (www.deltones.com--5 Newtones have just joined the group.)

Dinner: corn on the cob, which we brought to Iowa ("Look at all the corn!!") from New Jersey, LOL!

We hope to drive another hour before stopping for the night, perhaps at another one of these lovely rest stops.