Crossing the USA's Big 3 "I's"

Crossing the Three "I's" -- Okay, that's my own moniker, but how best to describe traveling through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa?  One word: Corn, corn, corn and more corn.  And once in awhile a field of soybeans.  Loads of corn, and most of it baked under the sun with little to no rain.  Believe several counties in Indiana and Illinois were declared disaster areas.  Corn looked absolutely terrible compared to the corn fields we're used to in Carroll County, Maryland.  I caught a news program tonight that said this year's crop of corn will effect food prices next year since corn by-products are in so many of our food stuffs. Everything from fuel for our cars to toothpaste to chewing gum to anything with glucose in it.  This year is okay, since all the stuff in food on grocery shelves this year came from last year's corn crop.  But watch out for next year; maybe a 3% to 4% increase in the cost of many of our food stuffs.  But enough of that.

We did manage to do some sightseeing while staying at the Thousand Trails (TT) Horseshoe Lakes region near Clinton, IN. Found the Ernie Pyle rest area that's maintained by a couple patriotic groups in the area. Nice little rest stop out in the middle of nowhere. There was an old covered bridge (probably reconstructed) and a historical marker. Took a snapshot of Lynette and Obi in front of the bridge and one of Obi and the marker . While stopping for gas at a local mini-mart, I had a pleasant conversation with some of the locals about a "nice" restaurant to celebrate our belated wedding anniversary. They sent us into Illinois, only two miles away, to the town of Paris, where we had a very nice Italian dinner at the Tuscany. Plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day.

Lynette and Obidiah at Ernie Pyle rest area near Dana, IN

Obidiah posing with Ernie Pyle historical marker

Left the TT campground around 9am and headed north on state highway 63 to pickup I-74. After a few miles we entered Illinois again and headed for Danville.  And once again, it was very flat, with lots of corn fields.  Weather continued to be hot, but maybe not as humid.  The corn crop here in IN and IL is basically gone.  Several counties in IN and IL have been declared disaster areas.  Corn crop was pretty pathetic; very brown, very small, with no tassels. Anyway, we headed west on I-74 going thru Champaign (home to the Fightin' Illini) and Urbana, and taking a bypass around Peoria.  I-74 is a tad bit better than I-70, but not by much; both need loads of work. We eventually crossed the mighty Mississippi river and entered Iowa, the last of the Big 3 I's.  We crossed at what is called the Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island, IL, and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa).  We were treated to an impressive view of the mighty Mississippi River. What a natural beauty. Lots of traffic on the river....barges and boats of all kinds. Beautiful sights.We ended up staying one night at the Interstate RV Park just west and north of Davenport.  For $34 a night, a very nice, if somewhat vanilla RV park.  When we crossed into Iowa at Davenport we picked up an hour crossing the state line.

LynDen Haus at an interstate reststop - amongst the many trucks - somewhere in Iowa

We departed Davenport around 9am again, and shortly picked up I-80 to basically cross the entire state of Iowa.  Also, I never knew that Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River in the east and the Missouri River in the west.  By the way, Iowa in the Pawnee language means corn.  Okay, I just made that up, but in the future when I think back about our trip across Iowa today, I'll remember the VAST fields of corn.  Corn, corn, corn and more corn...and once in awhile, a field of soybeans.  The corn here looks so much better than the corn fields in IN and IL.  Guess Iowa caught more rain.  As my eyes became mesmerized by the straight lines on I-80, I began to think about the American pioneers who traveled across this country not so long ago.  Wonder what they saw?  Probably a vast sea of prairie grasslands, as far as the eye could see.  And maybe hundreds, if not tens of hundreds of buffalo.  Must have been quite a sight.  As one travels across this part of the USA, the eyes can only take in the farthest horizons.  The land just goes on and on and on.

We did take a bypass around Des Moines and continued our journey west by tracking toward Omaha, Nebraska.  Just before we would have entered that state, we caught I-29 and headed due north for Sioux City, Iowa, basically following the route Lewis and Clark took in following the Missouri River. We finally caught sight of the Missouri just outside Sioux City, and while not nearly as impressive as the Mississippi, still a pretty impressive sight. We followed I-80 thru Sioux City and found our KOA campground in North Sioux City, South Dakota, around 4pm.  We're watching some of the Olympics on TV right now, but figure we'll hit the sack early for an early wake-up tomorrow morning.  We will cross the entire state of South Dakota tomorrow, ending up in the Rapid City area where we will stay for a few days.  In addition to registering the motorhome and car, and getting SD drivers' licenses, we hope to do some sightseeing.  More in the next blog.  Bye for now.