Adieu Lexington

We left Lexington MI just before 8:30 AM today, headed for Yellowstone National Park and many stops in the area and along the way.

We visited Yellowstone 22 years ago and wanted to return. Chances are "Old Faithful" will look the same as it did almost a quarter century ago, but there will undoubtedly be other things that have changed.

Last year we finished traveling to our fiftieth state, Hawaii. We decided that we would now revisit some of our favorite spots. We want to see Cody, Wyoming again as well as the Grand Tetons, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. We'll look for the Corn Palace and Wall Drug in South Dakota and if we have time, Glacier National Park in Montana. Hopefully, we'll once again take in Custer's Last Stand where his ego overtook common sense. The Native Americans provided Custer his "final" lesson.

We also want to find a ginormous field of sunflowers. We heard there are some incredible ones in South Dakota and we intend to scope one out in Vivian, SD. If you've read our blogs in the past, you know that we never miss the opportunity to photograph a state capitol building. We'll drive to Pierre SD, Bismarck ND and maybe even Helena MT.

Things were uneventful travelwise until we got to the Chicago area. Now, we know that Chi Town is celebrating Lollapalooza this weekend but the traffic jams we encountered were orange in nature. We have seen enough orange barrels, cones, barriers and signs to last us a lifetime. Is this part of the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act"? We wish there was a direct correlation between the miles of construction and the number of workers. While we drove miles and miles of narrow, barricaded roads with lots of warnings about slowing down for workers, we saw very few hard hats. Must be a Friday thing.

One of the most frightening things we saw during our travels across Michigan was a guy driving a mini van with two passengers. He was reading a book propped up on his steering wheel while he was also texting! I kid you not. He was probably driving 65 mph at the time. Can you imagine being a passenger in the vehicle?

While we are pushing hard to get some significant miles under our belts today, we won't be taking any photographs.

We have seen enough corn to assure you that ethanol is here to stay. Both sides of the road are lined with tassel topped rows, as far as the eye can see. All at once, a phoenix arises from a massive corn field near Geneseo, Illinois. What could it be? Why, it's an ethanol plant!

We cross the Great Mississippi and begin our trek through Iowa. Rolling hills and beautiful patterns in the crops make it a somewhat interesting ride. I wonder if the farmers are using the newer GPS units made for tractors. They are able to better utilize every inch of their land while creating some pretty patterns.

Our goal is to make it to Nashua, Iowa by nightfall. Some of you may remember learning to sing the song, "Little Brown Church in the Vale" when you were in elementary school, and you'll appreciate this stop. Here's a link to the story behind the song... http://www.littlebrownchurch.org/song.cfm.

We'll be calling Walmart our home this evening. There is one just a few miles from the little brown church. We clicked on the generator, made some dinner and called it quits. We covered 702 miles today. Dennis drove almost all of it (and managed to do it without reading a book or texting).