Corn, River, Corn (MA to MT, Day 3)

Back on the road for Day 3: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. This was one of our longer drives (approximately 570 miles), and we completed the switch from I-90 to I-80 (some overlap in between). From Elkhart to eastern Illinois we were within the busy Chicago suburbs and saw little, if anything, of note. A short way into Illinois, and the corn fields dominated. Of course, the scenery is gorgeous - green, rolling hills and sweeping views of farmland. The differences between this area and home are enough to hold your interest.

We crossed the Mississippi River around lunchtime and stopped at the Mississippi Valley Welcome Center near Le Claire, IA. We were able to picnic in the shade of some trees and enjoy a break from the infernal concrete highway (how do they tolerate all the bumps and vibrations?). While the view of the Mississippi from the Welcome Center was nice, I think it is fair to say that the highlight of our day was our discovery of the prairie nursery, a small patch of tallgrass prairie that was absolutely gorgeous. Iowa is now only 0.01% tallgrass prairie, while it was once much greater (if I could remember the original percentage, I'd tell you). I am saddened that we cannot see enormous tracts and get a better idea of what this tallgrass prairie really looks like.

Anyway, after the tallgrass prairie and the welcome center, we returned to the highway, only to find it mandatory to stop at the World's Largest Truck Stop! My sister quite enjoyed it. After that, back to the highway, and many, many more hours of corn fields, until we arrived in Bellevue Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha on the border between NE and IA. By the way, we saw a few large wind farms in western IA; we were surprised not to see many more.