Just a Drive...

Today we drove from Michigan City, Indiana, through Illinois, and into Iowa, where we stopped at a hotel in Des Moines. Fortunately, a friend gave us a great hook-up when it came to hotel rooms, and we managed to get the 'friends and family' discount for the few nights throughout the trip that we planned to stay at a hotel. It was rather necessary in Des Moines, because (not surprisingly) there weren't really any couch surfers in the area. We plan on staying at a campsite in Nebraska for a night or two starting tomorrow, but for now I'm glad we're at a hotel.
The day started out without a hitch as we got in the car and got out on the road, but I was feeling unusually cranky. I suppose it's that time of the month, which is definitely not something anyone feels like dealing with when trapped in a hot car on a long trip! We did pretty well until nearly the end of the drive, but with only a few hours more to go we had to stop repeatedly; once for gas and lunch, but then again to get Russell some coffee and again for the baby, who just wouldn't calm down for the last hour or so. We kept having to find ways to distract him, but even that stopped working after a while. He just wanted out of the car... So we pushed through and got to our hotel with a big sigh of relief.
The drive today was pretty boring. The country around here is wide open farm land, mostly corn, and it's relatively flat, with only the occasional roll to the earth. It was beautiful, but somewhat unchanging.
The big event today was that we crossed the Mississippi River on the Illinois/Iowa border. For a minute we weren't sure which river it was, Ohio or Mississippi, but it was so BIG and MUDDY, it seemed pretty obvious. The bridge we went over didn't afford much of a view, but at least I got a shot of the riverboat and the barge off the north side of the bridge. Pretty cool! It makes me think of Twain and Huck Finn, of course - and not only because we saw a billboard advertising the Mark Twain Cave (www.marktwaincave.com) in Hannibal, Missouri - where he grew up. I'd love to go there, but it's not really on our route - besides, it's probably disappointingly touristy and lame. I like the idea, though!