Looking out over a field in the midwestern states can be a shock for those growing up in the East. A photograph doesn't do it justice, although I also have a pan of the same location at my Lakeshoreimages Trip Journal (I'm not sure why I'm doing two journals, other than I expect to put far more images on the LakeshoreImages site once I get to the Southwest).
I also took a photo of an interesting change since the last time I went through this area. The tallest objects are no longer grain elevators. Electric generating windfarms are all over the place:
When I crossed the Mississippi, there was quite a bit of flooding. Iowa Public Radio stated it was the 6th worst recorded flooding. I also have a pan of the river at the LakeshoreImges site.
Although I'm not quite ready to throw Matilda, my GPS in the Mississippi, it's close. The via from hell that was giving me problems yesterday is still causing problems. I'm hundreds of miles past the troublesome via but the GPS still wants me to go back to it before I go any further. I don't think so! The only solution I could come up with was to dump the old route & make a new one. Since the old one took a couple of hours adding all the vias necessary to keep it off the interstates, I suspect there were just too many of them for the Garmin. I tried to modify the file using Road Trip on the Mac, and the new download to the GPS just crashed to GPS. I gave up & did a quick new route directly to the GPS sitting in a MacDonalds, and included a big section of I90 to cut a day or two off the time so that I can hit Chilliwack at a good time for the people at Escape. A GPS is handy, lots of fun, but you had better keep a paper map handy!
And an added note - No serious rain today. A few drops, but the wipers never hit high. In fact, there were breaks of sunshine! I still didn't get to use my new sunglasses because the breaks were gone by the time I got them out but there was some sunshine. There was also snow on the ground. The roads were clear, but Spring hasn't quite sprung in northern Iowa.
So, today was 415.7 miles for a trip total of 1332. I'm at the Budget Inn in Fairmont, MN, exit 102 on I90, freezing in my motel room. I think I know how they afford their cheap rates!
Till tomorrow!
Jon, I can just set my GPS to "No Highways". There are several other settings. I took back roads going out west. Of course, I hadn't plotted a route, I just went. If I saw a road that I thought was more interesting, I picked a spot on a map, put it as destination, and it took me. Again, I found the "vias" as I went along which is a little different, I guess. Happy travels. Pretty soon, when you have your trailer, you won't need "vias". I'm waiting for the GPS that has a button called "Wander" (That's my GPS' name). Won't you be glad not to have to stay in motel rooms? Safe travels.
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