Days 4-8 Revisited

Day 4: Walmart in Kendelsville, IN

Some cross processed Kodak E100G goodness

Day 5-6: Indiana Dunes, IN

Day 7: Coralville Dam Complex, Iowa city, IA

Day 8: Lions Park, Vermillion, SD

Day 7: Illinois and Iowa City

On our seventh day we abandoned our plan to avoid the interstate as out here it seems there just was no other way to get right through Illinois to Iowa city. And in the end I suppose it was a wise choice. As we were headed through Illinois we stopped in Peru Illinois a small town in the middle of nowhere to find a tree.

Not just any tree mind you but a tree that had been carved into a Vulcan Hand and embellished with the words “Live Long and Prosper”. (for all those Star Trek fans out there)
AWESOME!

This was well worth a little detour, but man was it hot out! It was at least 100 degrees and the wind was starting to pick up a little bit.. Right at that moment my sister Rosie texted me and said uh oh are you driving into this storm? It seems as if the Midwest was about to greet us properly.

As we drove into the heart of this crazy storm, visibility dropped to about 10 feet the sky turned black and we just had to put Dark Side Of The Moon on the stereo, turn the hazard lights on and push through it.

Just when we thought we had got to the other side of the storm we looked to the right and TORNADO!! Right in tune with the music. Just a small one though and it was just barely connecting to the ground. More excited than scared, we pretended we we’re Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in the movie Twister and drove through corn fields along side it while I tried to get a picture of it. All I got was its funnel though right before it gave up. We saw three more off in the distance but too far away to get any pictures..

We’re really in the midwest now!!!!

As the album ended, the storm dispersed proving that the album will sync up to any tornado related event- not just The Wizard of Oz – and we made it to Iowa city where we stayed in a proper RV camp at the Coralville Dam Complex another Army Corps of Engineering site. Or maybe we were actually in Oz after all. Everybody here is super friendly!

After we set up in our full hookup and dumped our tanks, Rosie came and picked us up from the campground. We did some laundry and ate in a local Tapas restaurant. On the way she showed us the worlds largest wooden nickel. Big things are cool.

A welcome change from campfire food.

Unfortunately we were exhausted from driving through the storm so we has to turn in early. Our next stop : Vermillion SD.