Friday, October 10, 2014

Time to Head South - 10/10/14

Friday – October 10, 2014
Time to Head South
Chicago, Illinois

It is time to head south for the winter. We departed the Chicago area at 1:50 p.m. under a clear sky with the warmth from the sun keeping the temperature in the low sixties. We had delayed our departure for a week due to the severe storms that were ravaging the southwest region of the U.S. We had intended to travel southwest and spend some time in western Texas to visit the McDonald Observatory, near the Davis Mountains State Park in Fort Davis, Texas before continuing on to Utah and Arizona. However, once again, major storms were impacting regions of Oklahoma and Texas, so we decided to take a northern route on I-80 where clear weather prevailed.

Our revised travel plan includes visits to:
Union Pacific Railroad BaileyYard - North Platte, Nebraska
Mesa Verde National Park – Mancos, Colorado
The National Parks in Utah
The Grand Canyon in Arizona

Traveling through Iowa on I-80 provides the traveler with a never-ending view of the nation’s breadbasket. The farmers could be seen operating their massive equipment, harvesting rows of corn that seemed to have no end. Late into the night beams of light were observed, piercing through the blackness, as the farmers guided their harvesting equipment through their cornfields. This spectacle provides the traveler with quite a tribute to the hardworking men and women farmers in these United States.

It’s 10:20 p.m., time to rest for the night. We will spend the night at a 24-hour Walmart in Council Bluffs, Iowa (I-80, Exit 3). We settled in with a few other RV’s that had also selected this spot to spend the night.

Total miles traveled today: 430

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

1 comment:

  1. Good idea to avoid those storms!! So grateful for our hard working farmers!!

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