Day Thirtyeight
Day Thirtyeight

Mount Vernon, IA to Grand Island, NE
July 20th, 2004

High Point of the Day....
Low Point of the Day......
Brian & Theresa - Seeing the Grant Wood exhibit
Brian - Humidity and 90 degree temps
Theresa - Nebraska
Miles Traveled Today
Total Miles Traveled
Miles Theresa Drove
Weather
420
9518
202 (2752 Total)
Sunny, humid, in the 90's
Price of Gas 
(average per gallon)
Wildlife
Night's Lodging
Where this Page was Uploaded
1.86
Cows, horses, deer
Grand Island KOA
Lexington, NE

Daily Didactic
Our morning started with the realization that is was already 88 degrees in the bus at 8:30. Our fan was diligently pushing that 88 degree air around and around, but it was still very warm. We broke down camp and headed into nearby Cedar Rapids for the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, home to the largest collection of Grant Wood work. For the uninitiated, Grant Wood did American Gothic, the painting of the farm couple with the pitchfork. News to Brian, he did a number of more interesting pieces and it was a great exhibit in a very nice little museum. Cedar Rapids, for that matter, is a very nice and very typical midwestern town. For us that means clean, orderly, and nearly empty in the middle of a weekday. Turns out President Bush was speaking somewhere in town, which may be where everyone was.

We grabbed a bite to eat, checked some email, and reversed our path back to Highway 30. Highway 30 is the "Lincoln Highway" and was the first coast to coast automobile route. It is the road we started in Pennsylvania, but gave up on. It is far more palatable in Iowa. As with most midwest roads, it is almost perfectly flat and straight. We followed 30 across the rest of Iowa and half of Nebraska before calling it a night, and closing one side of the figure eight, in Grand Island.


Daily Pictures (Slide Show)

Morning outside of Mount Vernon, it's already really hot Cedar River
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Must be where all that oatmeal comes from
Corn, it's hard to find around here Old barns
Mountainous Iowa roadway Ames' strikingly functional looking water tower
Iowa road shot Terraced corn fields
Hay bales wrapped in Saran Wrap, how about that? Railroad bridge over the Missouri River
The Missouri River Not exactly a welcome, more of a gloat
Nebraska road shot Dramatic sky near sunset



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