Iowa City IA to Mitchell, SD

 

 Today was our third very long day of driving, and the least eventful one. Here's a quick summary: Corn, soybeans, more corn, massive wind farm, more corn, ethanol plant, desperation time truck stop coffee, more soy beans, more corn, more massive wind farms, 75 mph speed limit, Wall Drug signs, indoor pool with giant water slide, puzzling Pizza Ranch restaurant, delightfully kitschy Corn Palace. Oh, and we're so lucky...Leo didn't end up getting sick after all. Phew!

Driving through beautiful and diverse Iowa, I really got a sense of how the huge ethanol production subsidies are really making lots of folks quite wealthy. I tried to explain to the boys about the controversy regarding the subsidies, and how much it really costs from an environmental perspective to produce ethanol. Between the endless rows of corn and the thousands of windmills, it was hard not to reflect on the changing mix of energy production in the U.S. and where we might be in another decade. It was my first time driving through such massive wind farms as Prairie Winds in south-central Minnesota, and the giant, sleek structures are like a friendly alien invasion across the serene landscape.

Our dinner choice of Pizza Ranch was a concession to the boys, and it really had me scratching my head, trying to figure out how their business model worked. They have over 300 franchises in the midwest, with the most restaurants in rural Iowa communities. I noticed how they tended to avoid bigger cities. They offer lukewarm, greasy, meaty pizzas in a buffet, along with a pathetic salad bar. The better Romaine lettuce had bacon mixed in, though I must say that the pizza dessert items were the best things available. 

The highlight of the day was not the Corn Palace, even though it was fun to revisit this landmark and revel in the curious souvenirs. The Days Inn pool gets the top nod, at least from all of the boys in the family. The water slide was outrageously fun, especially after I took a tip from Toby and laid perfectly flat on the slide and got the extra acceleration at the start by giving a good pull from the overhead bar. Collectively the boys and I must have taken over 50 trips down the slide.

Off to Wall Drug and the Badlands tomorrow! I look forward to a much shorter day of driving and our first night of camping.

Ithaca to Toledo

Finally our epic vacation is underway and everything is great! There's nothing like waking up at 4:30, completely restless  and eager to go. I was loading the bikes on the roof before sunrise, and the boys were patiently waiting in the car while we tied up all of our loose ends and headed out by 7 am.

The ride was very uneventful, but travelling past Allegheny State Park brought back a flood of wonderful memories of cross-country skiing adventures with Leslie in the '80s and '90s. I think I have the boys convinced that we need to rent a cabin there this winter. It's about time that they learned about the joys of nordic skiing.

It was hard to imagine many feet of snow on the ground on a day like today, with temperatures close to the 90s. It's a dry heat...yeah, right! Actually, it felt a little odd to be so insulated from the heat. I don't think I've ever travelled  cross-country before with a car that had completely reliable AC, and between that and the very comfortable seats, today reassured me that it will be pretty painless to drive 1600 miles in four days. We all enjoyed the audiobook Boom! by Mark Haddon today, though we missed a critical bit at the very end, due to a CD data transfer problem. Now we have to find the book at a bookstore somewhere and read the last few pages. Definitely a recommended read.

Somewhere in Ohio a blue van passed us and a friendly looking guy was beaming at us and waving. It took a couple seconds to register that it was our friends Tom and Bridgid from Ithaca. Tom must have recognized my bike!

It sure was nice to see some giant wind farms in southwestern NY and at some brown fields in Cleveland. I was reminded of Steel Winds in Buffalo. Hopefully the Ithaca area will really get its much-anticipated wind farm as well in the near future.

We're all looking forward to some swimming tonight, and it's off to Iowa City tomorrow.