Do you see what I see? Yes it is indeed a Dunkin Donuts in Indiana. This is the first that I have seen west of New York. To be fair there are a few in Ohio but we never passed one. We were all rejoicing as we pulled in because it was nice to have something that tasted familiar after four days on the road. Much to my surprise they are know selling DD K-Cups, and I have a new single brew for my dorm. I will have to try them and see if they are any good. We left DD and headed west towards Illinois.
After getting clear of the sprawling suburbs of Chicago, the sky began to turn dark and we all looked area bother knowing full well what was in store. After a few miles it is as dark as night and the rain began to hits us in sheets. The rain and wind picked up. The lightning stretched out from the sky and the thunder rolled loudly, shaking the very air that surrounded us. For a good stretch all I could see was right in front of me and the lines seemed to disappear. My wipers couldn't keep up, even on the highest setting. This continued on for some thirty to forty minutes and then it began to clear. The road became dry and the disappeared, but only for a short respite. Maybe an hour later the skies once again descended around us and unleashed their fury,. However this time around we were driving through open fields and the was whipping around us. A few times the trailer would get pushed and rocked as we tried to make it through in one piece. Again this lasted for about thirty minutes and we were approaching the Iowa border. The weather calmed down as we approached the mighty Mississippi River. We crossed in Davenport and shortly after the crossing the skies cleared out and the sun shined down upon us.
This is where we get to Iowa. Driving through Iowa is exactly the way everyone I have heard describe the their experiences. There is indeed nothing but corn. However in my mind I pictured just flat land and being surrounded by corn but the highway we were on was constant hills. We were constantly going up and then down, up and then down, it was getting a little annoying. If I had not been pulling a trailer my cruise control would have handled it easily, but since my car is fully loaded and also pulling a fully loaded trailer forced my engine to work a little harder. I am fully confident in my car's ability to handle this trip but it meant I had to be more involved and not push it. This rolling scenery of corn and an occasional cattle farm continued for more than three hundred miles. It was an uneventful drive but in a way we couldn't ask for anything better. We crossed the Platte River into Omaha, Nebraska around 4:30 which was about 7 plus hours of driving. After we crossed the bridge the first exit in NE was marked 454. Think about this, the exits are numbered by mile not in sequential order and we are traveling the whole state of NE on I80, so that means we have 464 miles tomorrow just in NE alone! Yikes, that will be fun. Lincoln was only forty five miles west of Omaha so at least we knocked out a bit of it today rather than tomorrow. We now have 399 miles to Wyoming. Time for dinner, going to Perkins, never been there before. I'll let you know how it goes.
Jeff and Jess in Steak N' Shake
There was a group of 8 Iowa State Troopers gathered for lunch, if they were here who was patrolling the highways???
What's that off in the distance??? More corn??? Sweet!
No comments:
Post a Comment