Of Winds and Windmills

We began our 3rd day of travel across the US by changing our planned route. Our destination for tonight is Welcome Minnesota and it was going to be at least 8 hours of driving, probably nine and if we had to deal with Chicago traffic we could add at least 1 hour, possibly 2 onto that time. So we decided to detour south of Chicago, travelling on I80 through Iowa. it would add a more miles to the trip but Google maps told us the travel time was virtually the same (less Chicago time). Anyhow, we went through some traffic, but not even close to what you would get on the Queensway in Ottawa's morning commute.

It wasn't long before we left Indiana and entered the state of Illinois.

 This part of Illinois is pretty industrialized. We drove through the largest quarry I have ever seen! We were going over a bridge and I took some pictures on my side of the bus and then realized there was an even bigger section of the quarry on the other side.

We went over what looked like an old bridge above a canal. Rick hates bridges. He reminds me of this every time we go over one. He certainly did not like the looks of this one!

Of course as we left the busy urban area, Illinois displayed her beautiful side.

Something that we have always found amusing is some of the road signs we see along the way. One such road sign talked about a huge pumpkin farm. I was hoping it would be along the highway so we could see just how big is was, but no such luck.

There was also a sign that we saw several times while crossing the state. Apparently they have the same issues with people texting and driving that we do.

Finally, the last sign of note made us think we took a wrong turn somewhere or were somehow transported backwards....

The landscape for western Illinois slowly changed to agricultural land. Most notably Corn. I was expecting to see fields and fields of it in Iowa, but not in Illinois. For many miles that is all we saw on either side of the road. I did spot one field that had little satellite dishes, all painted bright colors and mounted at the side of the field. (the picture I got was not the best)

With the change of landscape also came big winds. Which brings me to the title of this entry. We were being hit by winds that were gusting at about 50 kl/h either directly head on or on the side of us. Rick struggle to keep us on a straight course with some of the gusts and it was probably the most exhausting drives we have made to date. I secretly hoped that when we cut across the interior of Iowa to meet up with I90 that the winds would die down, but no such luck.

What I expected to see, but didn't, were a lot of active windmills. We did see some windmill farms, but most of the windmills were sitting idol.

I am not certain why they were not moving. I do know that we saw some billboards that declared "Wind is not the answer!" I know that when windmills started popping up in some of the rural areas around home it causes quite a controversy and caused big rifts between neighbors. Perhaps it is the same here. Or maybe they were all broken? That seems highly unlikely. Again...some things just make me curious. The other thing of note is that we saw several tractor trailers hauling windmill blades. I am sure we saw 12 - 16 trucks so it appears that they are continuing to put them up.

Windmills themselves are fascinating to me. I have no idea why. Maybe it is just their huge size or the promise they hold for our grandchildren's children. Did I mention they are huge? We took a break in a rest area and there were 3 trucks there, each holding a single blade.

Around the Illinois/Iowa boarder we saw many instances of flooding around rivers. and streams. Most of the trees and brush beside the rivers were under at least a foot of water.

Iowa was a bit of a surprise for me. I expected to see miles and miles of corn fields, just like in western Illinois but in fact, it was so much more beautiful. there were the corn fields and (I think) several soybean fields, but there were also beautiful rivers, lakes and canals. There were picturesque towns and, of course, many windmills standing still.

We were very lucky so far with the construction we have gone through  - most of it just reducing the highway to 1 lane. Then we came to Cedar Rapids and we started to head north west across the state. It seemed like the entire town was under cnstruction and, as luck would have it, our route was in the middle of it. we had to cross a bridge and the GPS kept wanting to turn us around so we would do it her way. But that way was closed. we followed our instincts and took the road west and ended up exactly where we wanted to be. Always be aware of where it is that you are going and never be 100% reliant on your GPS. Everyday I review the roads we are going to take so I have a general idea just in case. Even today with the route change I still looked things over. If we had strictly followed our GPS we would have been going in circles all day..

Finally, we approached our destination for the night, Welcome Minnesota.

This part of the country is in the Tornado zone so with the park information we were givn at check in we were also given evacuation instructions - where to go (A local church) and directions on how to get there. OK fine we thought The weather was hot and probably ripe for thunderstorms but we were both so tired we never really thought any more about it. We went to bed and, just as we were dozing off the siren went off! That is supposed to mean take cover due to a tornado. Or we thought? I looked outside to see if everyone was running for the shelter, but not a thing or person was moving. So I laid down again and tried to go to sleep...listening to the wind.....I must admit, it took a while for me to go to sleep.