From the Cornhusker State through to the Hawkeye State and, finally, the Land of Lincoln. It's been a full, rewarding day, as we really inched Roberto along our North American atlas! We are getting there! It's hard to believe that by Friday we should be home!
We may be tired tonight from all that driving, but I think part of the reason for our lethargy (at only 9:56 pm) is because of the sleep we got last night. Remember when I mentioned about "boondocking" at Cracker Barrel? Well, it seemed like a great idea at the time - have our late dinner, then walk out to the parking lot and not have to go anywhere. Everything went really well until about 5am when two semis packed with produce for Cracker Barrel showed up and unloaded. It was so loud! And we could hear the discussions among workers. They were quite pleasant - not a swear word spoken among them - at five in the morning (I mean, who is that pleasant so early in the day?)! Anyway, we learned our lesson: next time, we will park as far away from the restaurant as possible in order to maximize our sleep time!
Anyway, we got some coffee and everything got better! :)
We left Nebraska and entered Iowa - another beautiful, agriculturally-focused state. We saw some lovely farms - there is a noticeable pride of ownership among the farmers, and I always smile when I see a well-kept place. But, man, is Iowa windy! We have experienced wind gusts in Wyoming and Nebraska, but, in our experience, Iowa was the windiest state so far! I think we would notice it more than drivers of cars as we are so high up in Roberto - he struggled at times to stay on the road, which is always stressful! Iowans are trying to harness that wind with their plentiful wind turbines. We saw them everywhere, and you don't realize how huge they are until you are directly beside one!
Today was Dave's day to be excited. Out of the blue one day, Dave said the words, "Ottumwa, Iowa. That's where Radar's from." I was extremely confused! For some of you, those six words might make total sense to you, and that would be because you know of - and perhaps loved - the show M*A*S*H*! It was Dave's favourite show growing up, and it might be his favourite of all time. So, it was off to Ottumwa, Iowa to see what we could find out about the town and its connection to the show.
We ended up at the Wapello County Museum (which is in the upstairs portion of the railway station) in Ottumwa. There we saw a little exhibit about the town's connection to M*A*S*H* - a man from Ottumwa is actually the inspiration for the Radar O'Reilly character. On display was a photo of the cast that was signed by Gary Burgdorf, who played Radar. There were two choices of M*A*S*H* merch: beer and t-shirts. Dave decided he wanted a t-shirt and the kind museum worker told him that he didn't have Dave's size. But not to worry, he told us - he would mail it to us in Canada. We told him that would be great and to let us know the cost of shipping, but he refused and said they would be happy to send it to us via the mail, and apologized for not having it in stock. Can you believe that? Honestly, everyone we have encountered on our trip has been lovely!
After Ottumwa, we were back on the road. We crossed the Mississippi River and eventually crossed into Illinois. We are now in Joliet, just outside of Chicago, for the night.
For our next rv adventure, Dave said we should head to Crapabble Cove, Maine, the home of Hawkeye!
What do you think? Would you want to join Dave on that roadtrip?
Signing off from the Prairie State,
CC xoxo
(p.s. I didn't know that was Illinois' other nickname either!)
