Corn, windmills...more corn...more windmills...and then into South Dakota

Left Cedar Rapids, Iowa later than expected this morning after a good breakfast at Perkins.  The sky is huge on the plains and enormity of the landscape is breathtaking.  For all that I can see on the drive across the country, there are miles and miles more that remain unseen.  This country is huge and the world that most people choose to live in is so small.  I feel blessed to have this opportunity to see what I am seeing.

I met Glenn and Sharon working at the visitor center in Nashua, Iowa.  Except for the two years when they were first married and lived in Waterloo, Iowa, they have lived in Nashua their entire lives.  Waterloo was too big of a town for them.  Now they are retired and man the visitor center, modeled after the 1916 train station, greeting visitors and directing people to local attractions.  I'm glad for the stop, as it led to a visit of the Little Brown Church on the Prairie and the scenic sights of Nashua.

After Nashua, it was on through Floyd and Rudd, Iowa where the town sign read "Not bigger, just better". With Johnny Cash and Hank Willaims Jr an appropriate sound track to the sights, the miles rolled past.

The countryside went on for miles in either direction with fields of corn and oats.  The farmers were busy chopping corn and taking it to the huge silos dotting the land.  This continued all day and night.  The lights from the combines lit up the fields as the farmers worked to harvest the corn before it snows.  The plains are so open.  The only places that you see a copse of trees is around a farm house to protect the house from the ever present wind.

Iowa goes on for miles with corn and wide open spaces. Hundreds of wind turbines rise from the plains in all directions.  Back home on the mountain, I live within a wind farm and can see 13 of them when the leaves are off the trees.  Out here there are hundreds and hundreds within sight turning slowly in the wind.  It's amazing to see.

Old silos next to an abandoned farm

Wind turbines are every where through Iowa and Minnesota

In the evening we made a stop at Emily's and Jerrell's for a dinner and a short visit in Sioux City, South Dakota.  After dark, it was back on the road to Brookings, South Dakota for the night.  The road north out of Sioux City was straight and the posted speed limit was 75mph.  At that speed, the drive north was quick and after topping a small rise the lights from Brookings came into view over 20 miles away.  The day was long and the views expansive.  It was good to stop for the night.  

Tomorrow it's out Route 14 to Desmet, South Dakota then on to the Badlands and the western part of the state.  

Nashua, Iowa