Back Home in Indiana

Well – it’s Wednesday the last day of September – where has this year gone?
We are home, got here late yesterday afternoon after a marathon drive of 450 miles. NEVER AGAIN!!! Of course that’s what we say every time we do that.
Haven’t written much about the last three days of travel after leaving Golden, Co. through Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and into Indiana and that’s because there really isn’t too much to write about. Well I take that back…corn, beans, cows, corn, corn, wind, corn, beans, cows, corn. That’s about it. Well guess I can elaborate on it a little.
After spending a very cold night in Golden, Co we got an early start north towards Nebraska. We decided to go through Nebraska on the I-80 ‘cause we already knew that the I-70 through Kansas was a boring drive. Little did we know. The drive north/east on the 76 was a hint of what to expect. The road itself was the type of concrete road that is done in sections, almost like riding on a train track. Click, click, click. One thing I know for sure the glass tiles are on really good, not even one popped off. And that road was enough to shake one’s fillings loose. On the eastern side of the road was prairie with some cattle off and on. The western side was corn, beans and some dairy farms. Every time we passed a dairy farm we knew which way the wind was blowing. We’d get about ¼ mile up the highway and the smell would hit us. It would just go away and then we’d pass another farm.
Lovely. But we did get a little variation. We passed a sugar processing place. Mill? Plant? Anyway it was spewing brown stuff out of a big pipe onto the ground. There was a big pile of it getting bigger all the time. Kind of interesting – until the smell hit us. How could anything to do with sugar smell so bad. But then we passed another dairy so……
Also passed a little town named Lliff – that’s right Lliff – wonder how you pronounce it? Wonder why they named it that? Stopped for gas in a very old Flying J in Julesburg, CO. One of the first ones I guess. Then into Nebraska. Stayed the night in North Platte.
Another pretty cold night. About an hour into the day the WINDS started to blow. And blow they did for two days. I thought we’d get a respite from the weather by stopping in Fort Kearny to go to the museum about the area. Bad idea. I asked Gypsy to take us there. Off the highway we go – turn right, turn left…..oh, oh there was nothing there. Then we saw the museum, it was closed. Luckily there was a place we could turn around without problems. Back onto the highway with the winds. We did go under the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument that is 30 feet high over I-80. I think I remember seeing it in a Jack Nicholson movie. Meanwhile, Jennie was shaking and bouncing from side to side. Bill was hanging on with both hands. Check out the flag from the wind
Only did 140 miles that day before we stopped just outside of Grand Island, NE. Had to laugh there was a sign in the campground office that said, “If the winds ever stops blowing in Nebraska every one will fall down.” Kind of a neat campground – they make and deliver to your rig good pizza. Guess what we had for dinner?
Wind blew all night, really kept the temps down. According to weather channel it was blowing between 25-40 with gusts up to 50. Yep!
Next day was the same. More wind. Bill made the comment he knew why Nebraska was so flat. I asked why. He said, “The wind had blown all the hills away.” Makes sense to me. As for scenery – corn, corn, sorghum, corn, corn, beans, corn – well you get the picture. Finally turned south and still had wind into Iowa and then into Missouri. Got as far as Kansas City and stopped.
Next morning the wind had let up – or stayed in Nebraska and Iowa so off we went again. The only thing that broke up the day were all the NASCAR trucks we saw – they were heading towards Kansas City for this weekends race. Tried taking pictures of some of them as they roared past but usually just got blurs. That's the #29 not one of my favorite drivers. Oh well.
Didn’t see the #18 hauler but did see quite a few of the others.
The day turned into a marathon run as I mentioned before. We just kept driving and driving. Into Illinois then into Indiana – no point stopping there. The little road leading towards Nashville.
So soon we were home. We were on the road for 24 days and traveled 3900 miles in Jennie. And even more in the Jeep. Jennie was getting around 7.6mpg – the Alfa get around 8.5. Some places gasoline was cheaper than diesel, others it was more expensive. We paid lowest $2.14 per gallon all the way up to $2.99 a gallon.
We know a couple more things that we have to do in Jennie, but just minor things. We managed not to get in each others way too much. I only cooked three meals in her – so didn’t really give that a good test. Worked out okay though. Except every time we open the refrig something wants to come out. Missed my washer/dryer. But all in all it worked out okay. Bill says she is a dream to drive. No problems at all and we went up to 11,000 feet crossing the Rockies. No over heating. No problems towing Willie.
Today we’ve spent cleaning and doing laundry and catching this up. Tomorrow we take Jennie in to get the solar panels installed and hopefully get the satellite stuff fixed.