Today we drove from the middle (southern part of the state) of South Dakota to Des Moines, IA. Since we were very close to Nebraska, we thought we’d take a quick spin across the Missouri River and check that state off our list. But first we stopped for salad and coffee at a grocery store in Iowa. We’ve been having really simple lunches along the way, mainly stuff we buy in… grocery stores. The store we found today had a food court and we ate there. At one point we asked the barista at Starbucks (in the grocery store) about the best way to cross over into Nebraska. Along with directions, she warned us about Nebraska drivers saying they were all crazy.
We’re not sure what her reference is; drivers in Iowa seem pretty crazy too. We’re definitely not in the West anymore. The roads are more crowded, the speed limits, and the speeds are about 10 miles slower and people seem to like to hog the left lane regardless of their speed.
Other grab bag items:
We’re seeing a lot of permanent construction zones. About 14 miles of I-90 in South Dakota has east and west traffic sharing what was the eastbound lanes. The westbound lanes are gone. No pavement, just road bed. And that’s eroding with weeds popping up here and there. There are no construction machines to be seen anywhere in that stretch. It looks pretty permanent. We saw something similar in Iowa.
The Missouri river is huge. We crossed it in South Dakota and it forms the border between Nebraska and Iowa. Land within 10 or 20 miles of the river is generally green whereas most everything else is brown. You can see where the nation’s food comes from. BTW, Iowa is corn, corn, corn.
It’s really HOT here. Generally it was 100 degrees plus-or-minus a degree everywhere we went today. We left a restaurant after dinner and saw a bank sign that said 103. That’s around 8pm or so.
We’ve been heading east our whole trip; today was the first time we hit an odd-numbered (north-south) Interstate. We were on I-29 for a while, but then connected with I-80 for more eastbound travel.
We’ve seen some ‘funny’ gas station names including Whoa N’ Go, Kum & Go and the Loaf N’ Jug.
Des Moines seems like a nice city with friendly people. We found some good gluten-free options at a local brewery.
No photos for the blog or Smugmug, it was all interstate travel today. Pretty much the same on tap for tomorrow.