Long days driving

There are two major stops left along this journey – The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky and a long over-due visit with my sister Janie and her husband Steve in New Martinsville, WV. But to get to the first of those, we’ve 3 long days of driving. We left Custer State Park very early in the morning but we only drove for about 10 minutes before we were stopped by a buffalo who wanted to cross the road right in front of us. Of course, we obliged but he gave me a side-ways look at he walked by my window (maybe he’s camera shy). Later down the road we saw a large bird overhead. It was a bald eagle, soaring effortlessly above the countryside, his characteristic white tail-feathers gleaming against the deep blue morning sky. I was too awed to remember to take a picture. Sometimes, you just have to be in the moment.

A hundred miles more of South Dakota, then we entered into Nebraska. I’ve seen a number of agricultural states on this journey and I try not to embrace stereotypes, but honestly our route through Nebraska took us through cornfields, and cows. I’ve never seen so much of either one. I’ve always been a fan of the Farside cartoons which feature cows participating in various activities when humans aren’t around, and now I believe I know the origins of those cartoons. The cows exhibited all sorts of odd behavior. We passed one field that had to have been at least 20 acres, but all of the cows were packed together like sardines in one small spot. There was no water there, the grass didn’t look any greener, but there they were. On down the road, I suspect they were playing King of the Hill, because one cow was on top of a small hill looking around, while the other cows were down on the level ground all around the hill. In another incident, all of the cows were in one area of the field and a lone cow was walking away mumbling something that I couldn’t interpret. But he looked highly insulted. Sometimes I take notes in the car and I was reading over my notes at the end of the day where I had written “You know you have seen too many cows when it’s exciting to see cows run”. After hours of driving thru cows and corn, we came upon a field where all of a sudden, one cow started to run and was quickly followed by about 20 others. It could have been a game of tag, or vigilante justice unfolding – I’m just not sure.

About 30 miles south of Alliance, Nebraska, we hit some road construction and were stopped by a flagman. Jim turned down the radio and rolled down his window when a driver approached from the truck behind us. It turned out to be a very friendly farm worker who saw our Pennsylvania tags and just wanted to chat. He was originally from Hanover, PA. He left the East coast because he hated the cities and came to Nebraska to work on farms. We asked him about the size of these farms because they looked so enormous to us. He said they are frequently about 7000 acres, mostly corn and soybeans except on the rounded corners where the irrigation equipment misses – there they plant wheat. He obviously knew we’d be stopped for the construction for a while, and so we chatted until the flagman finally let us go.

We continued on to our campground for the night in Grand Island, NE. We descended from 9666 ft in elevation to 1880 ft. and drove about 460 miles. Already, we can feel the change in altitude, but we really didn’t do much other than fix a quick supper, shower and go to bed. It has been a long day.

This morning we arose early and prepared for another long day of driving. On through Nebraska, more corn, more cows, and then into Iowa for a brief time. We crossed the Missouri river, large and beautiful, then entered the state of Missouri. Like Nebraska, both Iowa and Missouri are also primarily agricultural states with lots of corn and soybeans. Oh yes, and cows. We drove through Kansas City, Mo and past the stadium of the 2015 Superbowl Champs, the Kansas City Chiefs. I forgot to take a picture for my son-in-law Jamie and I’m pretty sure he’ll never forgive me.

We are beginning to suspect that there are more Pennsylvania-MidWest connections than just our friend from Nebraska, because we keep seeing familiar sounding names. We’ve passed Hershey, Lancaster, Palmyra, a Mennonite Camp, Hamburg and Lebanon but there were no signs of really good bologna.

But for now, we’re in Columbia, MO at the Cottonwoods campground. It’s a very nice place, has a beautiful pool which we may visit, or we may just take advantage of the cable TV and air conditioning and do nothing for a while. Today we traveled another 420 miles and descended to an elevation of 685 feet – that’s a total drop of almost 9000 feet in two days. It's good to breathe! Tomorrow, more driving.

Today was our third long driving day. We need to travel another 460 miles to reach our destination of Williamstown, Kentucky. We got another early start and drove through Missouri. The farms and hills looked beautiful in the morning sunshine. Looking out over the fields, I was remembering the drive through Nebraska. Both states have huge fields of corn, so what was the difference? And then I noticed the trees. Here is Missouri, the fields are delineated with rows of trees, so there is something to break up the view. Also, Missouri farmers have a lot of sunflowers, which adds some whimsy to the fields. In Nebraska, it was just corn as far as the eye could see. I suspect this is due to the water differences. In Nebraska, every field must be irrigated so they only plant cash crops. Here in Missouri, there are many creeks and rivers and water seems to be much more readily available.

Our driving route took us into St. Louis – a beautiful big city whose hallmark is the St. Louis Arch, the gateway to the west. We got a good view of the arch from the interstate; stopping here was not in our plans, although many people have done so and say that it is a good experience to climb inside the arch. We also were able to view a number of beautiful churches as we drove through St. Louis.

Long days of driving call for distractions and billboards can be a distraction, although arguably they detract from the landscape. But I have found that they provide an interesting commentary on different areas, especially because a good number of them seem to be from various social agencies. When we were in New Mexico and Arizona, we saw large numbers of billboards for gambling and alcohol recovery programs, and an alarming number against child abuse and domestic violence. Today we entered the Bible Belt of our country and the billboards reflect that. We’ve seen many churches advertised, and many Bible verses and messages.

We crossed the Missouri river and traveled on through Illinois and Indiana before driving into Kentucky. So far on this trip, we have driven through 22 different states. Kentucky is a beautiful state, lush and green, lots of rolling hills and beautiful horse farms with large elaborate gates announcing the names of the farms. We arrived in our destination of Williamstown, Kentucky late in the evening. We had stopped for a very disappointing dinner at a restaurant called Cattleman’s Steak House and now we are just tired and ready for bed.