Crossing the Mississippi

Left Clive (Des Moines) on I-80 and continued across Iowa and then across Illinois.  Just as we got in to Illinois we turned south on I-74 which took us across Illinois and into Indiana where we have stopped for the night in Crawfordsville.  We have entered the Eastern Time Zone and lost the final hour.

Nebraska and Iowa both were under the dome of extreme heat and high humidity that has been over them for days and will continue for several more days.  Even early in the morning and late in the evenings it would still be oppressively uncomfortable.  The actual temperatures are in the high 90s to just over 100 and the humidity is also very high so the heat index (what it is supposed to feel like) is around 110 - 115.  Even in the shade it feels too hot.  As we stopped for gas in Illinois and, now this evening, in Indiana, we can feel that it is not quite so overwhelmingly hot.

Going westward we never really got a good view (or pictures) of either the Mississippi or the Missouri.  Yesterday as we entered Iowa, we stopped at the Welcome Center and I asked the woman where we could get a good view of the Mississippi.  She gave us a brochure about the small town of Le Claire which is right on the bank of the river.  There is an Information Center there that is privately run and has two different levels of decks that look down on the river. We took numerous pictures of the river from there.  The woman behind the desk at the center was a retired school teacher and we chatted for quite a while (in amongst her need to answer a question).  Besides talking about our teaching past, she recommended a small German restaurant that was right along side the river.

The I-80 bridge over the Mississippi

We went to Die Bierstube and had lunch at a table right at the window looking out on the river.  The food was excellent.  They make all of their own sausages and had lots of homemade items on their menu.  I had their broccoli and cheese soup.  Daddy had German potato salad and red cabbage along with his Reuben sandwich.  For dessert we shared a slice of Black Forest Cherry cake which had many things that reminded us of Oma's.  We ate inside the restaurant (still around 100 degrees here with high humidity) but did take pictures from the cute little deck.

The Mississippi from the restaurant deck

Went across the Mississippi River bridge to Rock Island, Illinois and went to their overlook and took more pictures of the river and the bridge that we had just crossed over.

Looking west - this is the view we missed when going west

Nebraska had been pretty barren (except where they irrigated) and mostly flat.  Iowa had rolling hills of corn fields.  Illinois was flat with large fields of corn and smaller fields of soybeans.  Because it is so flat you can see for miles out to the horizon.

Central Illinois is really flat

Tomorrow will be our last day of this "Western Adventure" and it will be sad to have it come to an end, but these last few days have been a lot of driving and I will not be sad to have the driving completed.