Corn and More Corn

On Wednesday, Team Grigsby left and Ann Arbor and headed for Chicago, with a quick detour to have lunch at Russell Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan:

The beach was overrun, though, with busloads of schoolchildren, so we didn't linger much after eating.  Rather, we quickly headed towards Chicago.

Chicago, as seen from Grigsby.

Well, technically we headed to one of the western suburbs, where my friends Marta and Danny live.  There, in Oak Park, I got to catch up with several my Chicago-area friends (Leah, Carrie, and Alan), who all graciously agreed to converge at a sushi restaurant not far from Danny and Marta's house.  After dinner, Jenny departed Team Grigsby, to continue her vacation with her friend Sean.  (They're flying to Vancouver.)  Grigsby's passenger seat seems so lonely now . . . .  Bye, Jenny!  Grigsby will miss you!

After some laundry the next morning and a re-loading/re-arranging of Grigsby's innards, Grigsby and I hit the road, all by ourselves.  We had a long haul ahead of us.  I had originally planned on taking I-90 up and over to South Dakota, but Danny convinced me I should take a more scenic route:  U.S. 20 through western Illinois and Iowa.  Good call, Danny.

Somewhere in Western Illinois

First stop:  Galena, home of Ulysses S. Grant (who knew?).   Galena was a very quaint, river town with lots of pretty Victorian homes with big porches.  Galena's historic Main Street was closed off because of a gathering of classic Packard owners.

Galena is very beige.

I spent some time walking around the historic district, checking out the very cool rides, which were all owned by 70-something white guys who all looked exactly alike.  Creepy.  I then grabbed some lunch at Galena's swankest restaurant (cost all of $12 including tip), and then continued west, crossing into Iowa, home of Radar O'Reilly. 

Then there was drama.  Somewhere west of Dubuque on U.S. 20, I saw an awful accident happen right in front of me.  Some guy went speeding by me in his little sedan, darting in and out of traffic.  A few hundred feet in front of me, he tried to dart in between another car and a tractor-trailor, but he lost control and crossed the median.  Before he could react, another tractor-trailer heading the opposite direction plowed into him.

Grigsby and I stopped, and I called 911.  Several other drivers stopped to help, one of whom was a doctor.  After about 5 minutes, police and EMS showed up (which seemed awfully fast, considering that we were in the middle of nowhere).  Once the place started getting overrun with rescue people, I left.  I only stuck around long enough to give a statement to a police officer.  I figured that they didn't need me lingering and getting in the way.  (I got a call later in the afternoon from a lady in the sheriff's department who had a couple more questions.  She told me that the driver was very lucky, and that it appeared that he was going to be OK.)

U.S. 20 was a lovely drive through more corn than I knew existed on the entire planet.  About halfway through the state, though, U.S. 20 just ended.  The sign only said "road closed" -- I assume it was some sort of construction.  So I turned off the highway.

If you ever look at a map of Iowa, you'll see that all the roads basically go north or south.  There aren't any diagonals.  And I was wanting to get to the upper left hand corner of the state.  So I pretty much had to zig-zag up one little country road, then over on another, then up, then over, then up, then over, etc.  Luckily, the roads are all straight, so I could drive them on a fast clip.

And passing through all the small towns was a trip.  I filled up in a little town called Fort Dodge at a gas station with an unfortunate name.

Apparently this is a chain in Iowa.

And I passed through more fields of corn, punctuated by small towns, silos, and windmills.

Finally, after about 12 hours on the road, I made it to the very northwest corner of the state, crossed over into Minnesota briefly, and then arrived in Brandon, South Dakota, late last night.  Spent the night in the local Holiday Inn Express, and now getting ready to hit the road again.

Next stop:  Badlands.  My next few nights I'm camping out, so there may be a delay in further blog postings.  Be patient . . . .