To Omaha - July 25-26, 2016

These are the pictures from the first part of our quick 2016 Midwest trip, which is just the ride from Amsterdam to Omaha.

July 25: Amsterdam, New York, to Elkhart, Indiana

We started from Amsterdam at 8:30, and were on the Thurway in Fultonville shortly after. A band of heavy rain in the Syracuse area slowed things a bit. We picked up takeout wings from the Anchor Bar location in Williamsville [Picture] and ate them while driving down the Thruway. The ride from there past Erie and Cleveland saw better weather, with just a stop in Ashtabula for gas and driver switch. Dinner was at a Cracker Barrel in Perrysburg, Ohio. We arrived at the Sleep Inn in Elkhart around 9 PM, and quickly learned that we were going to be sharing our part of the 2nd floor with a large group of Canadian baton twirlers. [8 Road Pictures].

July 26: Elkhart, Indiana, to Bellevue, Nebraska

We got on our way around 8:30 again, and drove down theough Elkhart to get to US 20 around the south side of South Bend. We stayed on US 20 to avoid some contruction (and the tolls) on the Indiana Toll Roads. Somewhere along there we crossed into Central Time. US 20 led is to I-94 and soon we were back on I-80 to work our way across the southern part of the Chicago metro. It was busy, but not all that bad. I-80 is definitely in need of some serious upgrades in many stretches in Illinois and Iowa. Just before we hit Iowa, we stopped for a nice lunch at Brothers Restaurant in Rapids City. After lunch, we made a quick stop to see the Mississippi River at the Shuler's Shady Grove boat launch [10 Pictures]. After that, we crossed the Mississippi three times because of a zig-zag route through the Quad Cities that allowed me to finish up the Interstate system in Iowa. The rest of Iowa included a stop for gas across the street from the World's Largest Truckstop (gas was a lot cheaper across the street) [4 Pictures], and a brief side trip on US 6 through Grinnell. There was also a rest area in western Iowa that had a large blade from a wind turbine on display, right in the middle of an area that had hundreds of wind turbines visible from the highway [4 Pictures]. We made it to Bellevue, Nebraska, about 11 hours after leaving Elkhart. [86 Road Pictures].


terescoj+pics@teresco.org - Wed Jul 27 15:21:03 CDT 2016