Iowa 80

After Chicago things started looking like the picture below. Actually, that picture is much too interesting. Remove the cute little farmhouse or anything resembling a building, and that would be a more accurate picture of the following 1,000 miles. On the plus side, a majority of the farms we passed had just fertilized their fields with cow feces. Terrific!

At the Illinois/Iowa border we detoured off I-80 to take a closer look at the mighty Mississippi River. And that is where we found the most amazing thing ever invented...

...the cowboy swing. I have a video to illustrate how this contraption actually works, but blogging on a PC instead of my trusty Mac has caused some problems. Therefore that video will just have to wait. But trust us, it was bizarre...and super fun. It was just another evening swinging in a deserted park in East Moline, Illinois while the sun set over the Mississippi River.

Once back on I-80, we were offered another special treat - the Iowa 80 World's Largest Truckstop. From inside it's hallowed halls, you can purchase any matter of goodies, from a set of swords to designer exhaust pipes for your 18-wheeler. Every surface was covered with "World's Largest Truckstop", something of which they are very proud. So naturally when Mark went to purchase his grape soda he asked the teller "Is this really the world's largest truckstop?" The lady behind the counter was not amused. I doubt Mark's convinced there's not a larger truckstop out there somewhere.