400 miles of cornfields

This is Friday night, and we are in a hotel just over the Iowa border near Omaha, NE. Our window looks out over the Missouri River, just about 50 feet away. I was looking out imagining Lewis & Clark floating along the river a couple hundred years ago. Pretty cool.

We promise to post a photo of Carhenge. It is pretty wild. This guy arranged all of these old cars on end in the exact locations and dimensions of Stonehenge, and then he painted them all grey. It's out in the middle of the corn fields outside the tiny town of Alliance, NE, in the NW corner of the state.

Yesterday and today we visited my farmer relatives. We drove out to a couple of the farms which are really rural. To reach them, you have to drive over 10 miles on dirt roads, which go only by a number, like "38." Not 38th Street or Place or Drive. Just a number. Apparently the farmers here prefer certain brands and colors of tractors. My great uncle Malvin, who's lived on the same farm for over 60 years, likes red tractors. But his sons and grandkids like green John Deeres. Also, my cousin's husband ordered a drink I'd never heard of at Ole's last night: "I'll have a red beer." When I inquired, he said it's a popular drink that's half tomato juice and half beer. I declined to try it.......

We stopped and walked around the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln. 'Weren't really very impressed. Not surprisingly, it has a huge football stadium. Omaha seems to be a prettier, livier town than Lincoln, although Lincoln has an impressive revitalized downtown area that looked pretty "happening."

Tomorrow we'll head towards Illinois, passing through Des Moines on I-80. If it's not too hot to be outside, we'll tour the Amana Colonies. These were communal villages settled by German immigrants in the mid-1800s. They are preserved and are quaint, sort of along the lines of Amish communities. Anyway, the villages eventually went corporate, and the Amana Appliance Company was the result. We're also anxious to see the Mississippi River. (Remember the little chant you said when you were little to remember how to spell that?) Then it's on to Galesburg, IL to visit my college friend who is the head of the Political Science Dept. at Knox College.

ESH