Stop And Smell The Corn

 

Our goal since leaving the almost everyday rain of the east coast is to go west, and to stay off of major highways like the interstates.

We had to run a short stretch of I 80 in Pennsylvania, and another short stretch of the interstate truck conveyor in Ohio, but after that we have met our goal of west bound and staying on two lane highways.

Highway 224 carried us through Ohio and is directly south of our east bound path on I 90. It is a much nicer ride

Any Direction Will Do

In Indiana and Illinois we did the same. West bound and off of major roads. Riding these roads you could almost imagine that the entire country is all agricultural and it almost must be, but then you go around large cities where crops are manufactured into foul smelling air, and where minerals are pounded into metal to make the giant machines that harvest the plants.

Nothing Runs Like A Deer

We road into In Ottumwa Iowa, not remembering that it is the hometown to the fictional character Radar O Reilly, from MASH fame. The town has also probably forgotten Radar as we found not one  mention of him or the novel  anywhere.

Chief Wapello 

We did find down by the river walk this statue of Chief Wapello who is buried nearby, and fondly remembered annual for signing peace treaties with the united states who was doing a full-on genocide on all the planes Indians at the time. Another statue of the Chief is back on top of the Wapello County Courthouse after being damaged by severe weather.

 We didn’t see that statue as finding Grahams Dairy Freez was more important.

Sundae Or Any Day Will Do

Finding Grahams was fairly easy. Parking there was not as easy, as the parking lot is carved out of a hill and is not motorbike friendly. I ended up parking on the street where Ohms Jiffy stand sunk into the asphalt, and still has tar stuck on it. The ice cream was good, but unlike the Sundae in the picture (that I had somewhere else) it came in a Styrofoam cup that will last in the land fill longer than the memory of sinking into the tar.

Take Away For The Birds

Riding through Nebraska I did some calculations and found that Nebraska is roughly 464 miles east to west, and most of those miles on highway 6 are miles and miles of Corn and soybean fields. That’s a lot of corn and soybeans.

Highway 6 Find It Ride It

Highway 6 through Nebraska is now one of my favorite roads. It parallels and is just south of the infamous Interstate. It rolls through small towns, and like I said a lot of corn.

Ever One Should Have A Friend In Friend Nebraska

Stopping for a break at Friendly right by the train tracks, we encountered our first train in days. A BNSF double stack train running at track speed screamed  by before we could get our cameras ready. Back on the road we chased it, and got almost to the head end before the tracks veered away from highway 6. Passing through small towns and slowing for traffic and delusional humans driving horse drawn carriages, I thought we had lost the train for good. Further up the road we caught the tail of the train again as it had slowed to a crawl to let a east bound Amtrack pass by. On the other end of town we could see the exhaust from the 4- 4000 hp. Locomotives as the beast accelerated up to speed. I slowed as much as I could, but the train couldn’t catch us, and again the tracks veered away from the highway. Now I thought this train was gone for good. Stopping for a snack, and fuel we headed west again, and got back to where the tracks parallel the highway again, and then I heard the trains whistle at a crossing behind us. Again I slowed down as slow as I could and soon the head end was approaching us, and this time the driver was on our side of the road. Much blowing of the whistle and waving occurred and made for just about a perfect day on Nebraska highway 6.

 

Thanks for reading