The Road to North Carolina: Central Time Zone: NE, MO & IA

Sunday, August 6, 2006

Changed over to Central Standard Time yesterday, but didn’t change our clocks and got a later start out this morning. Had said we would be to Polly’s about noon, but it was closer to 1:30pm. She had a great meal of fried chicken, corn on the cob mashed potatoes and gravy waiting (She also fed us homemade pickles and they were wonderful.) We ate and then of course felt like a nap, but it was very hot, so we went down to the Green Acres motel and RV park and plugged in to get the air conditioner. We napped and then rode our bikes back to Polly’s for a bit of dinner-she insisted. We sat until almost 10pm “flapping”-that’s talking, then rode the bikes home to the motorhome.

Monday, August 7, 2006

Unplugged in the AM and were back for breakfast by 8:30. We had said all we wanted was toast and coffee, but Polly didn’t listen and had eggs and sausage to go with our toast. She and I went to the nursing home and said hello to an old family friend who broke her hip last year, and a distant cousin who is bit on the eccentric side. Mike and I had decided we were going to get back on the road today, but Polly wouldn’t let us leave without eating lunch. I told her I wasn’t even hungry yet, and that I was watching my figure, and she actually told me I could watch my figure some other time. So we ate lunch, and of course all we wanted to do was nap, but we got on the road anyway. We sure had a good visit, Aunt Polly is certainly a character, and we loved every minute. We stopped for the night in Fairbury, NE, at Rock Island State Recreational Park, electricity and showers, what else do we need? We will look at the atlas tonight and make our plan for tomorrow, will probably hit it pretty hard, only about 60 miles to the Missouri/Iowa borders, and we want to get internet so will try to make it into a major city. P

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

It’s morning at Rock Island State Recreational Park. It had been a fairly interesting night. We put up the TV antenna and watched TV a bit last night. There were severe thunderstorms in the surrounding counties and a bit after dark the show started. We have seen a bunch of lightning in Boise. We are fond of it but this was something completely different. There were bolts of lightning like we see in Idaho but there also was a constant flashing. We are surrounded by trees so we couldn’t see much but we watched for a half hour or more and it never quit flashing. It rained like crazy, well for Boise, it rained like crazy. It has been raining on and off for the last couple of days, a few of times, like crazy, and Aunt Polly said it was a light rain. Heavy rain on a motorhome roof is pretty nice if it doesn’t leak and it doesn’t. I’ve lived in Okinawa, Japan so I’ve seen “real” heavy rain and humidity but I was young then. We had a nice visit with Aunt Polly and think the world of her. We also encountered humidity for the first time this trip. It had been raining so it wasn’t unexpected but as it began to warm, I found it unpleasant. It is going to take some getting used to. There is quite a happy bird outside this morning. The dogs are tied up right out the door. The cicadas are

quite for now. The trees will be crackling with them soon. We looked at the maps last night a decided to push for Des Moines. We want to be back in civilization. This will be my first time in most of these states. Just in case any of you are trying to call us on our cell phones, we aren’t ignoring you. They rarely have service and we haven’t been able to check phone messages since we left Idaho. We have internet more often but it is sporadic as well. So if we don’t post to the blog or e-mail you back don’t worry, we will.

T

uesday, August 08, 2006 pt 2

Well tonight we are just outside of Des Moines, IA. http://www.koakampgrounds.com/where/ia/15103/ It rained most of the way from Nebraska to Iowa.

It was pretty nice. Traffic was pretty mild and the countryside was pretty. We went through the northern tip of Missouri. So we’ve been in 3 states today. It makes up for too many nights in Nebraska. We want to be out of Iowa tomorrow as well. Tomorrow we are also planning to try a Maid-Rite loose-meat sandwich that we also saw on that Travel Channel show Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/taste/taste.html Here is the Maid-Rite website: http://www.maid-rite.com/ and here is the episode of Taste of America with Maid-Rite on it: