Today was another destination day. Our sole goal was to get another day closer to the fun stuff. Therefore, no side trips along the way and little opportunity to take pictures. So let’s see how I can do painting a picture with words.
While we started just outside St. Louis in Illinois and ended in South Dakota, this day was all about the “show-me” state of Missouri and the mythological cornfield state of Iowa. We spent most of the morning going west on I-70 across Missouri to Kansas City and the rest of the day going north on I-29. The roadway terrain was similar the entire trip through these states, with gradual long inclines and declines – not flat but not rolling hills. The roads were excellent. Other states need to learn how to do it from Missouri and Iowa.
But let’s start this day’s from the beginning. The weather was again ideal for traveling with a cloudy sky but no rain. We left our poor excuse for a hotel – the Hampton Inn in Fairview Heights, IL - tired from a lack of sleep. Our room was 2 doors away from the indoor pool and directly below the local circus training center for its elephants (not really but so it seemed). This wasn’t the start we hoped for on the single longest segment – 620 miles - of the entire 5-week trip. So I loaded up on caffeine and headed toward St. Louis, a mere 13 miles away.
As we neared the city, there was lots of fog, dampening our hopes for seeing the Gateway Arch in the morning sun. We thought the fog was associated with the Mississippi River but we got lucky. The view was clear and I got the following video from my dashcam.
In addition to the Arch, you might have noticed Busch Field, the baseball home of the Cardinals, at the end of the video. The stadium and the downtown area around it, the Arch, and the Arena are very nice. Otherwise, our impression of St. Louis is that it is a dump. The rest of downtown and the suburbs (at least what we saw) were pretty old and rundown.
The suburbs of St. Louis seemed to go on forever but were probably closer to 60 miles. Then we had some open land of forests and small farms until we hit the university town of Columbia in the middle of the state. It was after Columbia that real agriculture made an appearance. There were fields of corn and soybeans that stretched for miles. Soybeans were the dominant crop by about a 60/40 ratio. But there was plenty of both.
As we crossed the state, a couple of things became evident as the miles clicked by:
1. It seems that Missouri uses letters, rather than number, designations for its state highways. We naturally saw lots of exit signs. Normally, I expect to see something like “Exit 42, US 322, Clarion”. Instead, I was seeing signs like “Exit 42, UU D, Clarion”. I had never seen that and, frankly, hope I never do again. Who wants an address on UU Road?
2. One item really surprised us. All along the rural areas of I-70 were Gentlemen Clubs and Adult stores. There would be billboards to advertise them and the facilities would be omnipresent at the otherwise nearly barren exits. One can only imagine what happens at the “Adult Store and Spa”. The whole scenario just seemed out of place in the heart of America. Oh well.
I drove the whole of I-70 and north on I-29 nearly to Iowa (St. Josephs, MO) before I finally wore out. After 960 miles through 2 days, I needed a break. Susan drove for a couple of hours until we neared Omaha, NE. That gave me an opportunity to take some pictures from the car. Prior to that, I had a barely willing and impatient technophobe in my passenger seat who took about 3 pictures. Some of the shots are shown below. These were taken from a moving car.
 |
| Grain elevator - always the farm girl |
 |
| Missouri |
 |
| South Dakota |
It so happens that I-29 follows the Missouri River valley for hundreds of miles. Where I expected to see field after field of crops, the ground was wild grass or, worse, under water. Back in May and June, the upper Midwest suffered through unusually high amounts of rainfall and the Missouri River valley was severely flooded. I learned from a gentleman (in Sioux Falls) that the rest of the summer was also wet and the June floods never drained from some areas. That seemed to be the case south of Omaha. But the scenery changed north of that point as silos, bins, grain elevators, and fields of corn dominated he landscape within the valley bordered by hills to the east and to the west in Nebraska.
Those hills were interesting to me. They appeared no more than a couple of hundred feet higher than the valley, but they held many homes – with a view! The height is relevant only because I saw signs for “Ski Areas”. Seriously? Skiing in the flat corn fields of Iowa? Live and learn.
Finally, we crossed the Missouri River into South Dakota at Sioux City, Iowa. It seemed a little more open, a little more flat, and a lot more straight. I guess that is what makes the next statement more reasonable. The speed limit changed to 80 MPH! I had never experienced such exhilaration on the highway. The miles melted away faster than I ever thought possible. Of course, my exhilaration was tempered by the quaking mass of gelatin adhered to the armrest of the passenger door. Let’s just say she was far from exhilarated and let it go at that.
Ten hours after we started, we arrived at our hotel in Sioux Falls, right on schedule. We had a great dinner of walleye and brisket at a local place called Roam, went to the local park to see the “Sioux Falls”, and hit the sack for another big tomorrow – when we finally get to the fun stuff.
Susan’s quote of the day: “Nothing can happen to you. I can’t find my way home from here.” I guess I should be glad that I have a purpose.
The highlights - Sioux Falls and dinner.
The regrets - None.
Today's total miles - 642
Today's miles from start to destination - 620
Today's miles on side trips - 22
Today's miles driven by Paul - 522
Today's miles driven by Susan - 120
Today's hours in car - 9 1/2
Cumulative total miles - 1,282
Cumulative miles from start to destination - 1,225
Cumulative miles on side trips - 57
Cumulative miles driven by Paul - 1,162
Cumulative miles driven by Susan - 120
Cumulative hours in car - 19
Cumulative miles on side trips - 57
Cumulative miles driven by Paul - 1,162
Cumulative miles driven by Susan - 120
Cumulative hours in car - 19
No comments:
Post a Comment