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.

And on we go!

Day 2 of the big adventure was the only day that was not completely planned out. You see there is this little city named Chicago that is right in our path and we had to make a decision that morning as to whether we would go through Chicago that day or wait until the next morning to do that. Even on I90 toll road we were going to be in traffic that would, at best, take us an extra hour or two to go through. Last year when we went through Chicago at mid day it took us more than 2 hours,. Rush hour on the toll road would not be much better. So we decided to leave Chicago for tomorrow. I also threw out the idea of going south of Chicago, through Iowa the next day and avoid the traffic all together. It would add a little distance onto the trip but, in the long run, save us time. We decided to wait to make that decision until that night. It was decided our target for the end of Day 2 would be Laporte Indiana.

We got a reasonably early start to the day and it didn’t take long before we were in Cleveland. We awoke to heavy fog and it was just starting to completely lift as we arrived in the city. The tops of the building on the skyline were stilled shrouded in fog, though.

The interstate roads seem to run around Cleveland and it is very twisty and bendy with some interesting hairpin curves. The city puts on a nice face for those driving though it, though. in many cases there are sound barrier walls and these are actually nice looking with little mosaics on each panel.

the highway wound down past the waterfront and Lake Erie looked calm. Of course what I could see was within a break water so one would expect it to be calm....

One last picture of the skyline....

After Cleveland there really was not much to see except open roads. We did pass close to their airport and saw a plan coming in for a landing. When all you see is road this can be exciting!

Sometimes things that we see along the way make me curios. For example, both yesterday and today we passed a few windmills. For every one windmill we saw that was working we saw 2 more that were just sitting still. It would seem to me that if you went to the expense of installing one you would want to have it running so it would give you some return on your investment?

Another thing we noticed through both Ohio and Indiana was the use of triple trailers. These were the only 2 states so far where we have seen theses and there were a lot of them. Up until this point we have not seen any double trailered trucks that are so common on Ontario roads.

There really wasn't much else to comment on. the roads in Ohio were, for the most part good. We talked about how much they seemed to work on the roads in Ohio and figured it was because it was a toll road people expected more. That seemed very plausible until we entered Indiana. Those roads were probably the worse we have ever been on with the RV and it didn;t matter whether we were on a stretch of toll highway or just regular highway it was just bad. The contents of our RV were nicely rearranged throughout the day - even the stuff that was what I thought was securely stowed away. For example our plates are in the cupboard with a piece of anti-skid material between each plate so they do not shift. My small plates usually sit on top of the dinner plates. After only part of a day on the Indiana roads I found my bread plates had jumped off the dinner plates and now were standing up at the back of the cupboard. Luckily nothing was broken.

What I thought was going to be a short driving day was still 7 hours on the road. We amused ourselves but looking for more prancing animals. We also saw signs that said we were to watch for wild trucks. We didn't see any of those either. 😏😉

We arrived at our campground at around 3:00 pm which gave us time to make a run to the local Walmart. As we were checking out Rick took out a piece of ID and said because he was shopping in the town that was named after his family he should get a 50% discount! I think the cashier thought he was serious because she said "Sir, I don't have that code!"

We headed back to our camp, had a nice dinner and then discussed the travel plans for the next day. Rick reviewed the maps and travel times and we decided to leave I90 and travel south on I80 to bi-pass the traffic in Chicago. With that plan made, we retired for the evening.

Aaaaannnnnnddd We’re off!

I can honestly say that I felt a lot more prepared this year for our big trip than I did last year. Of course last year this was all new to us and, in my opinion I did not plan the trip out very well. Changes and flexibility were the name of the game but so was being unsure of a lot of things. This year was going to be different.

Because of my physical limitations from the accident last year, I had to load the bus a little bit at a time. That worked very well as I could pack clothes first - seeing as we would need long pants and sweaters and they definitely were not going to be worn before we left. I made lists. Lots of lists. But it truly felt like I was accomplishing things when I could cross more stuff off the lists. Bottom line: I was organised and methodical this year. That worked like a charm. It felt odd just 2 days before the trip to literally have nothing to do except recheck my food lists. I even had the food loaded up the day before we left so there was almost nothing left to day the next morning. We could just get up, shower and leave. We would be on the road by 7:00 am and off to our first stop. Ahhhhh those best laid plans……

Saturday afternoon Rick did his final checks of the rig. Oil, brake fluid and transmission fluid were all good. Windshield wiper fluid tank was filled to the brim. All that was left was to check the tire pressure. That’s where the best laid plans went a little sideways. One of the inside tires on the back was flat. Wait! What? How did that happen? In the end the how and the why’s do not matter. That is, in fact, why we check these things before we head out. So, Rick used his compressor and filled the tire up. We now had to see if it would hold the air overnight. If it didn’t, then we would find a place the next day to get it fixed. That would likely be Canadian Tire since nothing else would be open on a Sunday. It would delay our trip by a day. Not really a big deal I would just have to contact everyone and bump our dates by a day. Best case scenario is we wait until daylight to check the tire and then decide at that time if we could leave. It turns out, the tire did hold the air overnight so we were starting as planned. Two hours later than planned but same day.

The actual route and destination for each day was planned way back in July. We were planning to visit the DesiLu Studio and Lucille Ball Museum in Franklin New york on our way to Connaught Ohio. Because of our late start, we did not get to Franklin until around 4:00 pm and that would not give us enough time to go through he museums before they closed for the day, so we made the decision to just push through to Connaught. When I plan our trip back we will likely stay in Connaught again and visit the museums on our way home.

When we started, I was reminded that the only way to know that our Jeep was still behind us was to look for it's shadow (when it is sunny). When we started out we could see it.

The actual drive through New York and Pennsylvania was pleasant and scenic. We traveled this route coming home last years so it was somewhat familiar.

My first day of travel seems to be an adjustment period where my brain and my finger on my camera do not have great communications. For example, we noticed that there were a lot of broken road signs on the highway between Watertown and Syracuse. Lots. not just one or two but probably a half dozen or more. Did i think to take a picture or 2? Nope. it occurred to me later. Much later.

The most direct route to where we were going was to stay on I90 right across the country.  While not the most scenic route, it did get us to South Dakota in just 4 days. It mean that we saw a lot of this: 

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And this.....

                                                                     And more of this.......

That pretty much described what we saw of New York State. We did see several signs that said to watch for prancing animals....

We did not see a single prancing animal! Not one! probably for the best though. Although they would be entertaining, they would probably be very distracting to all of the drivers on the road. 😁😏

It started to rain just before we left New York and entered Pennsylvania. it is hard to get good pictures when it is raining! 

Mostly what was remarkable in Pennsylvania were the grape orchards. Miles and miles of them. We started to see some orchards at the western edge of New York but they seemed to the dominant crop throughout that part of Pennsylvania. not surprisingly, there were signs for many different wineries in that area. 

While there are many times my brain just didn't tell my hand to take a picture during this first day, there were also times when I was so awe-struck by what I was looking at that it simply did not occur to me to take a picture. Such was the case when we passed Erie County Memorial Gardens Cemetery. What I saw was an airplane surrounded by small American flags. Hundreds of them!  It was truly a sight to behold. I found a couple of pictures online but they do not do justice to the site from I90. If you are passing through that way, keep an eye out for it. 

It did not take long to cross through Pennsylvania and enter Ohio. 

 

Our destination for the night was Connaught and it was just a short drive across the state line. As you can see, it is raining quite a bit by the time we reached there.  We pass through the Seneca Tribal lands before reaching our destination. The overpasses in this section were marked with the symbol of the Iroquois Nation, made up of 5 tribes, including the Seneca. 

We spent the night at Evergreen Lake Park. The campground was beautiful and appeared to have lots of things to do, including a mini-putt. However, the fact that it was pouring rain and we were both exhausted at the time meant we really did not take advantage of all the park had to offer. I hope to be able to get back there on our return trip.