Corn, corn and more corn....

The Blue Angels started our trip across the Midwest to see Furry Husband's Ma and my Ma-In-Law. I realized 30 minutes into our trip that I forgot tennis shoes and all I had for shoes were the flip flops on my feet. We stopped at Sierra Trading Post to see if I could pick up a cheap pair o' shoes and maybe Furry Husband could score some shorts. We pull in and there are cops all over the place directing traffic with their flashers going.

Cars were pulled over EVERYWHERE. People were in lawn chairs in the back of their pick-up trucks - whole families in lawn chairs - baby lawn chair - mama lawn chair - poppa lawn chair - in the back of their truck - along the side of the highway. People lined up all over the place. We are looking around thinking wtf?? I asked in the store.... oooohhhhhhh.

It was Cheyenne Frontier Days week and on one of those days the Blue Angels do an air show and fly over. We were ringing up our purchase when you heard this increasingly loud rumble/scream over the building... I guess they were starting! We went outside and spent a good 5 minutes watching. Looked at each other - "you ready?" "I'm ready" "K - lets get goin'"
Then there was corn..... And more corn.
I noticed that many of the towns in Nebraska and Iowa decorated their water towers. I remember water towers growing up in NE, but I guess I don't know what their purpose is. Well - duh - to hold water...but why?? One town we passed through at night and their water tower was all lit up... if I squinched my eyes and thought REAL hard, I could almost liken it to the Eiffel Tower at night! (riiiiggghhhht. and this is when you know you've seen wayyy too much corn)
Oh - there is this monument they built in Kearny (pronounced carny - as in "that bearded lady is a carny" or maybe like carnie - as in "change the radio station, I don't like that Carnie Wilson song")Our friend Al in Denver tells us that people from all over stop to view this monument. I can tell you it was not around in the 17 yrs I lived in NE. I don't know why they built this monument over "beautiful" I-80, but there you have it folks! Uh, we did not stop to go in the monument.

This picture is Furry Husband's and is for any person with testosterone that might be reading this blog.
This struck me as funny. Really? THE cleanest? How do they quality control that? Do they have people posted up and down I-80 in EVERY bathroom? Every fast food joint? Every rest area? Every gas station? How do they know they are the CLEANEST??? It could send you into the corn fields for days - weeks - months... well at least until harvest time meditating on the answer.
And again. This is probably more quantifiable... you could probably run some financials, or look at property deeds to see who has the biggest.... but we did not stop to take in this great wonder along I-80 as we needed to be on our way....
This also struck me as funny. I don't know why. Even cross road truckers need haircuts and I expect most hairdressers or stylists don't have parking lots equipped for your average 18 wheeler....

Did you know that Hastings, NE claims to be the town where Kool-Aid was invented? There is a museum there.

And there is a really big Dutch museum somewhere in Iowa and many little Dutch/German shops along I-80 in that state. Why did so many Dutch people make their home in the Midwest? They come into a major port on the East Coast and head to the middle of the country to set camp. Interesting...and yet, not interesting enough that I will lose sleep or begin an in depth study of it.

We travelled for 14 hours. We started in CO, went through WY, NE, IA and finally into IL. 5 states in 1 day. Yowza.

We made it to Rock Island, Illinois at about 11:30 pm central time. We called Illinois Ma several times to let her know of our progress. The first call I made and she said, "oh! It's so quiet. There are no honking horns or anything." Furry Husband and I laughed a while about that one. I guess I wouldn't expect to hear honking horns as you were headed down a major Interstate at 85 mph?

When we got to her house, we pulled into the garage, brought in our things and I went right to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.

There was a GA-ZILLAPEDE in the bathroom sink. It had a gazillion legs and was running laps unable to get out. I ran to Furry Husband, my face dripping wet and covered in soap.... I am whispering in my most quiet "emergency" voice - "YOU MUST KILL IT! GO TO THE BATHROOM! THE SINK.... IN THE BATHROOM .... GET SOMETHING .... THE SINK!"

At this point Illinois Ma comes out of her bedroom and Furry Husband tells her about the ga-zillapede. This woman's house is spotless. She exclaims, "Oh! Well it wasn't there when I went to bed! It must've followed you in."

She was absolutely serious.

Yes. The ga-zillapede followed us in. I'm sure you are right. It followed us in, was faster than our long human legs - cuz it has a ga-zillon compared to our measly two and it beat me to the bathroom sink.