The Drive, Day 2, Sat, 8-29, A Driving Day...

Saturday we were on the road at 8am Central Time. There was a Hardee's across from the hotel and we got our biscuit breakfast there. Claude took note that the person at the window as not nearly as pleasant at 'Roberta', the robot that takes our order at Bojangles in Georgetown. 

Our goal today was to get from St. Louis to Council Bluffs, Iowa. We ended up taking the wrong exit. Google maps rerouted us from where we were which gave us the blessing of seeing Missouri from a more rural perspective. 

These are pictures taken along the drive. In Missouri, the highways are not given a name but they are given a letter. I find this amusing. When they get to the end of the alphabet they begin again with AA. When you read it, you sound a bit like The Fonz from Happy Days....Highway Aaaa. 

I liked finding this highway sign "Mexico and Louisiana". Another billboard advertised for "Garden of Weeden". Clever, very clever.

I came to the conclusion we are a corn growing country. Lots and Lots and Lots of corn across our fair land. 

I loved the pretty yellow baby sunflowers along the sides of the road. They pretty up a ditch quite nicely.

We passed one area where there were fields piled high with tree debris. There were many, many piles, I only got this one in a picture. They must have been clearing for more fields to grow more corn! Shame to see all the trees and animal habitats go away. 

The Marx family gave us this game for Christmas. We played half of the trivial pursuit cards in it on a previous journey. This time we went through those cards again. I would save the other half for the return trip home. I ask the questions. Claude gives the answers. Sometimes I think of a hint. Sometimes the questions are a newer generation and we pass those. 

The other things we have a lot of in these remote area are wind turbine farms. Claude and I find them beautiful. This time, I looked up how they work. Did someone have to turn on a switch to get the to turn. Nope. They have a computer in them that is sensitive to wind. When there is enough wind, it clicks on and the blades go round. When the wind slows down, the computer turns the blades off to save on the life of the blades. 

We made it to Council Bluffs by 3:30pm. We were still in Central Time. The television in our room did not work. The nice man at the front desk came and got it going for us. When we got ready to check out the next day, I went through the room to be sure we were not leaving anything. I found a second remote in one of the drawers. Geez! We had dinner at a Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant. Very good meal. 

Gasoline this day was $3.79 per gallon. We traveled through 2 states, Missouri and a bit of Iowa. We stayed in the same time zone.