If I have failed to provide local color and scenic detail, you haven't missed much. Neither have we. Iowa was bleak today, cold and bleak and gray and brown. Next August, on the return drive, we expect to see a far livelier landscape. To add to the icy cold were legions of wind turbines (Trina: your worst nightmare) seemingly scattered like wild seeds. Every once in a while our orientation via the interstate lined us up with three or four turbines and it was clear that at times they were designed as "rows" but for the most part they genuinely were planted willy-nilly. Each is bigger than a breadbox. Although they're painted white and the sky was a light gray, they remain the biggest, and the only vertical, thing on the landscape. Old Iowans and Nebraskans must shudder. On they other hand they probably represent employment, or at least temporary employment when they were constructed, and they may (or may not) pay dividends to the farmers upon whose land they sit. So far, whether in the East or now (we're in Lincoln, Nebraska tonight), these turbines stand morosely, their blades rarely moving. And so I ask, how much energy is that Hurculean engineering effort generating?
Lincoln is very much not like the movie: for one thing the city is in color and therefor not seen in the most flattering light. It's cold. And it's the home of Weird Wally, about whom we learned a bit as we drove into town: "Welcome to Lincoln - birthplace and home of Weird Wally". Naturally we were clueless and sensed we'd missed an significant cultural beat or two. There's a lot about which we're less than up to date. Fortunately a few questions later and we were brought up to speed and left with a sense that we were not as backwater-esque as we'd thought: the telltale link.
Lincoln is flat. That it's a sprawl of one-story buildings emphasizes this vertically-challenged city. On the other hand the state capital is one of the few that does not sport a dome and seems to make up for what all the other buildings fail to accomplish. Nebraska bills itself as the home of Arbor Day. A noble cause but one apparently not embraced too much by the locals.
We've spied a Mexican restaurant and after dinner will get a good, long night's sleep. We expect things to pick up after tomorrow. Tomorrow will be entirely the Great Plains and less farming, more ranching or even more, well, more empty. We took a few detours off the interstate to get a better sense of what Iowa and eastern Nebraska were once like. Omaha struck me as somewhat interesting and big enough to offer what the endless string of small towns cannot. Back on the interstate we were struck by the repetitive nature of enterprise and wondered what else was available beyond agricultural machinery dealerships (fascinating, however), Pro Bass Shops, Indian casinos (and riverboat casinos at nearly every bridge crossing the Midwest's great and historic rivers) and truck stops. Iowa80 (worth clicking on the link) bills itself as the world's largest truck stop. We did not stop.
Tomorrow: Cheyenne, Wyoming. I have taken the "Impeach Cheney" and "Deport Lynn Cheney" bumper stickers off the car. Maybe we'll attend a Liz Cheney meet-and-greet!
Lincoln is flat. That it's a sprawl of one-story buildings emphasizes this vertically-challenged city. On the other hand the state capital is one of the few that does not sport a dome and seems to make up for what all the other buildings fail to accomplish. Nebraska bills itself as the home of Arbor Day. A noble cause but one apparently not embraced too much by the locals.
We've spied a Mexican restaurant and after dinner will get a good, long night's sleep. We expect things to pick up after tomorrow. Tomorrow will be entirely the Great Plains and less farming, more ranching or even more, well, more empty. We took a few detours off the interstate to get a better sense of what Iowa and eastern Nebraska were once like. Omaha struck me as somewhat interesting and big enough to offer what the endless string of small towns cannot. Back on the interstate we were struck by the repetitive nature of enterprise and wondered what else was available beyond agricultural machinery dealerships (fascinating, however), Pro Bass Shops, Indian casinos (and riverboat casinos at nearly every bridge crossing the Midwest's great and historic rivers) and truck stops. Iowa80 (worth clicking on the link) bills itself as the world's largest truck stop. We did not stop.
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| next years Trucker's Jamboree is July 101-2, 2014 |
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