Day 17 - Hustling Through the Hawkeye State

Hensley, IL

We woke up this morning to this nice view from our trailer.  A little lake in the middle of the campground we chose last night when it was pitch black dark!  It was hot and windy when we left and Shale definitely struggled to keep the trailer on the road for a while this morning as the wind blew us all over the place.

By mid-day, the wind had settled down but dark clouds rolled in all around us as we moved westward.  Our plan today was to drive until about 6pm so that we could set up camp and have time to do the ridiculous amount of accumulating laundry which, at this point had become a good replication of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in a corner of the trailer!

Very reluctantly, Shale pulled off the road at the border of Indiana and Iowa so we could get our photo with the sign.  The place we pulled off was pretty sketchy.  Big trucks and cars were flying by us and as you can see from the photo....we were pretty far away from the darn sign.  We actually walked part of the way to it and we are still far away.  The entire time we were walking Shale was telling me,  "This is the worst place to be walking because if someone hits the trailer and car, blah, blah, blah...", which we were walking in front of; well...you can imagine!  All I could think of the entire time we were trying to take the photo is that we were going to get flattened at any moment - thanks babe!  Welcome to Iowa, the Hawkeye State, the American Heartland!

Do you see the tiny white speck behind us in the first photo (red circle)?  Yes, that is the 
Iowa sign!  I snapped a picture of it as we blazed by - you are welcome!
I couldn't resist the smiling water tower in Adair!

Did you know that 90% of Iowa is dedicated to agriculture?  I did not!  I figured a good portion of Iowa was used for farming but 90%?!  That is A LOT!  I guess that would explain the crazy number of corn fields we saw today - and I thought I saw a lot of corn in Illinois a few days ago as we drove north to Chicago!
Illinois, you've got nothin' compared to your western neighbor!

Eli sent me a text today (and the below photo) to tell me that Grandma and Grandpa had taken them all to see Jurassic World, he said it was really good!  It sounds like the kids had a relaxing day. Samantha is there now with them and I am sure they just had a good time catching up with her!

Shale and I found a campsite as planned, just outside of 

Des Moines in Altoona, Iowa for the night.  This probably, is the nicest RV park that we have been at since we began our trip a few weeks ago.  It really is nice....lots of green grass and trees, a bright white fence around the entire property and a little lake with a bridge over it in the center of the place which, we were lucky enough to be situated next to!  It started to sprinkle as we were setting up but we really didn't care!  It actually cooled down quite a bit and I put on a jacket for the first time in 2 weeks!  We started our laundry, set up camp, grilled hamburgers and listened to music outside on our little "patio".  I even baked fresh chocolate chip cookies!  We really needed an evening to relax and not feel rushed - this was perfect!

As much as I was enjoying myself earlier this evening with the whole relaxing thing.....It really is too bad that the kids weren't with us today because not too far away from where we settled in, there is a pretty big amusement/ water park!  I took a couple of pictures as we passed it on our way to Walmart for you kids so you can see what you missed....bummer!  

Adventureland - Altoona, IA

As I sit here in bed tonight writing, the movie Slumdog Millionaire is playing on our bedroom TV from the DVD player.  If you haven't seen this film, you should, it really is a great story! Anyway, as I intermittently watch (I have seen the movie before) and write today's blog, I am reminded again of how blessed we are to live in this beautiful land of the abundant and free.  We have the freedom to choose what we do with our lives, where we live them and how. Our children sleep with a roof over their heads in beds. They have clean clothes, shoes and an abundance of foods to choose from. We have plumbing and electricity - not something that is common in slum areas of the world.  If I were to guess, I would guess that maybe 1/3 of the world's population live in slums for an array of different reasons.  Maybe more, maybe less but 1/3 is a LOT! Slumdog Millionaire is not a true story however, it does paint a picture of of a realistic possibility.  The lives lived by the main characters (kids) in India in this story are hard to imagine.  I am just thankful today for this country and what it has to offer us! Thank you Iowa for your contribution!!  

Nebraska is on tomorrow's itinerary - until then.....