August 18, 2011 - Thursday
Illinois to Kansas
As
we left Illinois and crossed the Mississippi River one final time I
turned to get this photo of the Falls. There's a dam here where,
in the old days, river boats had to unload to make them float as high
in the water as possible. They would have their cargo and
passengers ported by land past the falls then the boats would negotiate
the falls with care. Finally, they would pick up their passengers
and cargo and continue on upstream. They'd have to repeat the
process on the trip back down river.
Leaving Illinois, we passed first through Iowa...
Then Missouri a few miles further down the road.
As we passed this sign while headed west I pondered how we had left Macon then travelled over 1,000 miles only to find it "again" located in Missouri.
The next river bridge was something to behold. I got this clear shot from underneath it.
Unfortunately, my camera work wasn't fast enough to capture a photo of the bridge from a distance. The best I could do was this photo which I took with the camera pointed backwards out the window.
Needless to say, none of these photos is high quality. They were all taken through the dirty car window while headed down the road at 60 to 70 mph.
As we headed west toward Kansas, I began to notice more and more grain elevators like this one located on the river.
We entered Kansas.
As we drove through Kansas City, Linda told me how she saw the huge railroad yards there 20 years ago. I tried to get a photo of some of them out the window without much luck.
I did get a photo of this "RR Yard" sign, though.
I've always heard how flat Kansas is but all I saw were rolling hills.
We passed Ike Eisenhower's birthplace. I think it's a fitting tribute to the WWII hero that we were travelling on his brainchild, the American interstate system. When Ike was a young lieutenant, he was ordered to escort a convoy from coast to coast. That was in the 1920s when there were only dirt roads and mud holes.
Most of the trucks crashed through the weak bridges along the way and had to be pulled out with draft horses. The convoys travels made a lasting impression on him. He must have vowed to improve things if ever one day that option was his.
Our final destination this day was Salina, KS.
You know, everyone has told me how Kansas is a flat, treeless state covered by nothing but wheat and corn fields. I've never been across it before. And I'm sure there will be ample proof of how flat and treeless it is farther west. But so far, all I've seen are trees, pasture land, and rolling hills alongside the corn rows.
I must tell you the best joke I've heard. A friend told me the state tree of Kansas is the telephone pole. Hahahaha. I like that one. That's probably true of the western half of the state which you'll see in the next web page about our trip west.
Leaving Illinois, we passed first through Iowa...
Then Missouri a few miles further down the road.
As we passed this sign while headed west I pondered how we had left Macon then travelled over 1,000 miles only to find it "again" located in Missouri.
The next river bridge was something to behold. I got this clear shot from underneath it.
Unfortunately, my camera work wasn't fast enough to capture a photo of the bridge from a distance. The best I could do was this photo which I took with the camera pointed backwards out the window.
Needless to say, none of these photos is high quality. They were all taken through the dirty car window while headed down the road at 60 to 70 mph.
As we headed west toward Kansas, I began to notice more and more grain elevators like this one located on the river.
We entered Kansas.
As we drove through Kansas City, Linda told me how she saw the huge railroad yards there 20 years ago. I tried to get a photo of some of them out the window without much luck.
I did get a photo of this "RR Yard" sign, though.
I've always heard how flat Kansas is but all I saw were rolling hills.
We passed Ike Eisenhower's birthplace. I think it's a fitting tribute to the WWII hero that we were travelling on his brainchild, the American interstate system. When Ike was a young lieutenant, he was ordered to escort a convoy from coast to coast. That was in the 1920s when there were only dirt roads and mud holes.
Most of the trucks crashed through the weak bridges along the way and had to be pulled out with draft horses. The convoys travels made a lasting impression on him. He must have vowed to improve things if ever one day that option was his.
Our final destination this day was Salina, KS.
You know, everyone has told me how Kansas is a flat, treeless state covered by nothing but wheat and corn fields. I've never been across it before. And I'm sure there will be ample proof of how flat and treeless it is farther west. But so far, all I've seen are trees, pasture land, and rolling hills alongside the corn rows.
I must tell you the best joke I've heard. A friend told me the state tree of Kansas is the telephone pole. Hahahaha. I like that one. That's probably true of the western half of the state which you'll see in the next web page about our trip west.