Heading West Days 1 and 2 of my 2014 Adventure

It’s a new year and time for a new trip. For 2014 I opted to stay in the U.S. – it’s a big country, after all.  Initially, I only planned to drive the Great River Road or GRR). Then, the Maryland baseball team made an unexpectedly deep run in the NCAA Tournament and the possibility arose that I might want to travel to Omaha to see them play in the College World Series. That then planted a seed that if I went to Omaha, I might be able to scoot north and see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Well, the Terps didn’t make it to Omaha but I decided that I would add two days onto the trip and swing out to South Dakota regardless. This meant I’d drive about 6,000 miles and pass through 20 states counting my home state of Maryland. So, at 06:30 on 5 July, I backed out of the garage and began the trek west. The idea for this part of the trip was to cover as much ground as quickly as possible so I expected the first two days would have little to write about.

For Saturday, this was essentially true. By 08:00 I had reached Pennsylvania. Three and a half hours later I entered Ohio. I crossed Ohio and Indiana and decided to stop about 19:00 in Ottawa, Illinois having traveled about 720 miles. I wasn’t too tired but neither was I in any great rush. Had I wanted, I could have easily driven another two hours and put myself in a position to reach Rapid City or Keystone by Sunday night because, as I write these notes Sunday night, I’m only about 2 hours east of there now.

But let’s take a temporal step back because I have at least a little to write about Sunday. I left Ottawa a few minutes past 07:00 and by 08:30 I entered Iowa and had my initial crossing of the Mississippi River. It was here I began seeing signs for the Iowa 80 Truck Stop that bills itself as the world’s largest. That may or may not be the case but it is big. How big?

Look closely, that’s a full-size tractor trailer in the background. And it’s not merely the convenience store, the food court, and the buffet restaurant. It has a theater, a barber, and a dentist! You can peek at its web site using the link above – though it’s mostly just a catalog for trucking accessories.

However, this morning I had my first disappointment of the trip. One of the reasons I chose the GRR route was to get off the beaten path and see some of the interesting places one tends to miss when they keep their travel to the Interstate Highways. Admittedly, I-80 is part of that system but one adjunct of the Iowa80 Truck Stop is the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. This was, according to the brochure, “a dream of Iowa 80 Truckstop Founder, Bill Moon.” Sadly, I arrived at the truck stop at 09:00 Sunday morning and the museum doesn’t open until noon on this day of the week. As interesting as it might be, I didn’t think it worth a three-hour wait. It, too, has its own website.

One other moment of note from Iowa 80. The morning was overcast so I chose to wear my Maryland baseball cap rather than my straw hat since you can only wear a straw hat in the rain once. Driving across Illinois, I realized I was in Big Ten country. From time to time, signs would pop up at the edge of a cornfield urging the passengers in the speeding cars to visit the Fighting Illini website. Well, at Iowa 80, a gent named Tim wearing a Nebraska cap spotted my Maryland cap and welcomed me to the B1G. (Beginning in the 2014 fall sports season, and after 62 years in the ACC, Maryland had left that conference and joined the Big Ten.) We chatted sports for a few minutes then each went on our way. Later in the morning, I’d pass through Iowa City – home to the Iowa Hawkeyes and another new conference for for the Terps.

Some random notes

I saw a lot of Iowa driving across the state in sort of an L – east to west (about halfway) then south to north. Much of the eastern part of the state filled my nose with the fresh scent of fertilizer. When I reached Rapid City the smell became more like hops. Perhaps a brewery was nearby or perhaps the smell was emanating from the large Quaker Oats processing plant.

Rapid City is apparently home to a large Czech and Slovak population. It’s home to a Czech and Slovak Museum (I didn’t stop) and a large section of the town is called Czech Village.

The Midwest also seems to be the home of a chain of adult superstores called the Lion’s Den. I saw billboards for this business in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. It was a different superstore in South Dakota.

Iowa is the third largest producer of wind energy in the U.S.

It promotes the homestead of Herbert Hoover and is home to this little town:

Not far from Toddville, I sort of circled Mason City the birthplace of Meredith Wilson and the model for River City in The Music Man.

I’ll see lots of wind turbines in southern Minnesota but take no photos.

Maintaining this journal and getting all the photos I want is going to be tricky on this trip. Unlike last year’s train adventure, I’m driving. Thus, I don’t have long stretches of idle time to draft my journal and taking pictures from a moving car can be tricky. For example, there is a small stretch of terrain in South Dakota along Interstate 90 just after you cross the Missouri River where the land is a series of knolls.

To me they look a bit like I imagine the Barrow Downs from Tolkien’s description in The Hobbit although I’m terrible at visualizing these sorts of things. It’s a good thing I didn’t find them frightening. If I had, doubtless many would be calling me a knoll coward.

This thought struck me as I drove across South Dakota and passed a sign for the hometown of Senator John Thune. This now very reliably red state is home to the same people that sent George McGovern to the Senate three times. How times have changed.

I met a chatty and helpful chap at the South Dakota Welcome Center and our conversation led to me reserving a room at the Landmark Inn in Murdo. I have some pictures of the inn which actually sits on 30 acres of land. It’s only open from June to October. The man who built it died some years ago and his wife can’t run the Inn on her own. One of her sons comes from California to help her through the summer but he has to return to the left coast to maintain his job. Murdo has a very late sunset because it’s only about 15 miles east of the line dividing central from mountain time.

Those of you who have read other entries in my travel journals know I have a certain affinity for signs. Typically, when I travel overseas I pick up on odd translations. I’m unlikely to encounter that on this trip but I did find some signs at the Landmark Inn I thought worthy of adding to my collection.

Finally, I’ll note that, as much as I enjoyed my XM radio before the trip, I like it even more now. of having XM radio in the car. Saturday I listened to the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals, Sunday I listened to the Wimbledon men’s final and the Orioles’ game. When I wanted music, I flipped to Bluegrass Country, or Soul Town, or The Bridge, or Hits 1, or Bluesville, or, well, you get the picture. I will admit to occasionally flipping to FM to pick up NPR. Though there’s an NPR Now station on XM, it doesn’t carry the flagship shows of Morning Edition or All Things Considered.

You can find the miscellaneous pictures here. I’d suggest you check back to this folder and the signs folder because I suspect I will be adding to this as the trip proceeds.