We woke to a flat tire. Explained the metal ticking sound, the trailer listing all night. We changed it quickly. Found a puncture from a nail or screw. I had not brought my repair kit, packing light.
I made real coffee with Kicking Horse 454 Horsepower. Hand ground! "By my deeds I honour him, V8." Made toast using our site AC power.
8:39 AM CDT. On the road after gassing up. Sunny.
Changed my phone to manual time as the Lume was not updating with in GPS mode.
Penelope, Ian's vehicle GPS, routed us north of the Quad City.
Iowa.
10:40 AM. We were on I-80 near West Branch. Partly sunny. The roads were good, actually very good. Very few cars. Many transport trucks though.
12:49. We lunched at the DOT rest area. There was wi-fi, yeh! Pinged rho who noted the Iowa Speedway was just ahead... The air temperature was 22°C.
2:00. Drove through a storm, heavy rain at times. Ian showed me how to switch the truck to all-wheel drive on the fly.
One straight highway... the I-80 west of Dexter was straight as an arrow.
3:11. We fuelled up near Mitchellville.
We started last segment for day with Ian at wheel again. "We keep moving!"
It was flat. Corn everywhere. Distant trains. The temp had climbed to 29°C. It was sunny again.
Entered some rolling landscape, still more corn.
Nebraska.
4:20. Left the divided highway, veering north-west. Felt like we were truly in the middle of nowhere. "Gone offroad, into hostile territory." It turned cloudy again.
4:29. We encountered a roundabout! Bravo. Took highway 32 and pressed to Norfolk. 88 kilometres or 50 miles to go.
I wanted better quality photos but did not have my real camera in truck.
Ian wondered how far we were from the centreline. Fred's eclipse book would tell us but it too was in the trailer.
4:56. We drove into a wild storm front. I took photos with the crappy smartphone camera. Storm chaser qualities except no twisters. No flying cows. Then we hit big rain. Good thing today was not eclipse day...
Went through town of Beemer. I didn't see any beemers or bimmers.
Arrived Norfolk. I spotted a tire shop still open, Graham Tire. Nice people, they patched our puncture quickly and insisted on remounting it on the trailer. I wanted a photo of the old pick-up with bull horns.
We scouted the Wally Mart. Open 24 hours. I grabbed some butter tarts for the morning.
This would be our camp site. This was also new to me that some WalMart stores were receptive to people staying overnight. While some RVs and 18 wheelers were parked out front of the Norfolk store, we set up in the back. Quiet. Less light. Some real trees.
Enjoyed a good pork chop and a baked spud on the barbie.
Started raining at dinner time. Ian put out the awning.
9:02. Ian headed to bed.
9:32. I caught up on texts and emails.
It occurred to me that I would be visiting a number of US states for the first time including Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. I think I've been through Indiana and Illinois, as a kid, but I will have to check.
At some point today, I started thinking about my welder's glass Sun viewer thingee and that I hadn't seen it for a long time... Did I forget to pack it or did I leave it in my car? Likely the latter.
Amazing landscapes today.
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