Sunday, August 17, 2014, Moving on to Iowa

By 8:20, we were on the road driving east directly into the bright sunshine. It is already 24 C (75 F).

Three miles east of Kearney, Nebraska, we came across the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, which is a museum of and monument to Nebraska's and the Platte River Valley's role in westward expansion.
Designed by a Walt Disney team, the Archway spans more than 300 feet over Interstate 80 and weighs nearly 1,500 tons. The Archway takes visitors along the trails, rails, highways and superhighways in a self-guided audio tour that includes stories of travellers along the way. The show starts in the 1840's with the Mormon Trail, Oregon Trail and California Trail that converged at the nearby Fort Kearney before heading west.

The displays of different time periods feature a buffalo stampede, gold seekers, the Pony Express, the telegraph, the transcontinental road, a drive-in movie and a 1950's cafe. 

Continuing along the highway, we saw corn, corn and more corn! Next thing we knew, it became foggy and the sun was obliterated. About eight minutes later, the clouds cleared and we were back to sun & 25 C (77 F). Later, we found out that the fog was due to the moisture in the vast fields of corn evaporating under the hot sun. 

Next, we passed by Lincoln, the state capital, and continued on to Omaha. Shortly after, we crossed the Missouri River into Iowa. It is cloudy and 27 C(80.6 F).

The road is quite rough and the trailer brake plug came loose (meaning we have no trailer brakes or lights). Fortunately, there was a rest area just 15 miles down the road. It was the nicest rest area we have come across! And it has Wi-Fi! There was a quiet picnic area behind the building away from the highway traffic where we had lunch. Kudos to Iowa.  





As we were about to depart, in came a truck which was ferrying five 110-foot telephone poles from Oregon. We had marveled at these stately trees and wondered how tall they were! Could be tricky turning corners! 






Much to Marcel's disappointment, we had left flat Nebraska behind, and were now into hilly terrain. 

We came across yet another extensive Wind Farm, this one called the "Adair Wind Project". Iowa is a leading state in wind power generation with 27.4% of the state's electricity generation coming from wind in 2013. There are 193 turbines comprising the project.

At 2:00, we arrived at the Des Moines West KOA, our stop for the night, where the temperature has reached 30 C (86 F) 
"Something" happened to my computer & I couldn't get online. I got a message "no wireless devices detected" That was scary. Shut down & left the computer. Marcel could get on with his computer running Windows XP. LOL.

The KOA had an on-site pizza place, so we ordered Pizza & Wings for supper. Not so great, but beats cooking!