Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

Simon is feeling better today, thankfully. It’s what we in Leftpondia call “24-hour flu”. And S points out is probably not truly influenza but a non-influenza ‘gastric virus’. Two nations divided by a common language!

So we had a re-do of lunch with B’s mum. Much more enjoyable today since we were all happy to be there. We had a good visit.

Eventually, we needed to move westward. So the journey’s latter theme for today is … dust!

We decided to continue on Highway 30 … the Lincoln Highway. We’ve decided that the pace of travel on Highway 30 is much better suited to our Westfalia than the soulless hurtle across I-80.

Eastward out of Aurora, we saw many windfarms. As we got farther west in Illinois, not so much. So B consulted a map and suspects that U of Illinois in DeKalb may have instigated the windfarms. This may be Malthusian (population growing faster than resources allow … and then technology enables better use of resources).

Because the Mississippi has a reputation for being a “mile wide and three feet deep” we expected a very wide bridge. But about a mile into Iowa, we realized that the two less impressive rivers we had crossed were, in fact, the one wide Mississippi!

Later into Iowa, we decided to detour off the current Highway 30 to what we surmised is the original, historic Lincoln Highway, and were rewarded for our efforts by a lovely sidetrip through an old Iowa town. Someone who has much more time could make a journey of taking all the side trips like that!

Tonight we’re overnighting in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Update (S.) Bed bugs are crawling across the USA, westwards. Last night, we avoided staying at the local Super 8 across the street from the La Quinta Hotel, where we did, in fact stay. I was bitten by bed bugs anyway. Can you say itchy?

windfarms

roadside attraction

a small part of the width of the Mississippi