TripTracker.net - Cross Country Trucking, Shut down

noranda82

Cross Country Trucking

Shut down - Davenport, IA

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Jul 30 2011, 05:33 AM

43 photos

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Traveler

noranda82
Wellesley, MA, United States

Journal

Location

Davenport, United States, Iowa

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Today was full of interesting sights! We are on day 4 of our trip to Kentucky and today we drove through the rest of South Dakota and most of the way through Iowa. I noticed a huge difference in landscapes once we passed the Missouri River into Iowa. I can honestly say that I never want to live in South Dakota. It is completely flat and devoid of anything more interesting than a few hippies (see previous post). Iowa is much more exciting! First, it borders the Missouri River which divides it from Nebraska and apparently floods from time to time as it did today. Malls, farms, streets, and playgrounds were all underwater today. They even had to shut down a part of the main highway due to the flooding. Lucky for us, we weren’t planning on taking that part of the highway anyways.

Well let’s get to the interesting sights because they were a-plenty!
- So I know I said South Dakota had a lot of corn… but I obviously didn’t know what I was talking about until I got to Iowa. I don’t think they know how to grow anything else! Sometime on this trip I’m going to go run through a corn field just because it seems like something I should do. I just hope the farmers don’t catch me. >_>
- Yay for wind mills in Iowa! We even saw a few wide load trucks at a truck stop that were hauling windmill blades. I didn’t know what they were at first because of their size. o.o
- We ran into a little bit of fog in the morning but the sun came out pretty quick. It made me realize that we’ve had *really* good weather so far on this trip. Besides a little sprinkling in Portland (figures), we’ve had nothing but sunshine with intermittent cloud cover. Let’s hope it stays that way because my pictures are coming out great!
- Along with the flooding, we saw more sand bags than I’ve ever seen before. They also appeared to be building levees to better control the floods. Yup, I’m sure that’ll work.
- Dexter. Just because I love the show.
- We drove through De Soto, Iowa, which apparently is the birthplace of John Wayne. Who knew! I thought he was born in an airport in Orange County. ;D
- A humvee.
- A sweet sports car.
- A car with a wide load and 6 flags (not the fun kind).
- A crop duster in action!
- Some… interesting (we’ll go with interesting) … um… signage in the corn fields (see photos).
- The WORLDS LARGEST TRUCK STOP!! This place was unbelievable. It was like a mall designed just for truckers and trucker enthusiasts alike complete with a number of actual trucks inside. One of them had an amazing mural painted on the trailer. Across from the truck stop was the Iowa 80 (because it’s on the I-80) Trucking Museum, although sadly we did not get a chance to check it out. If you’re ever in the middle of Iowa on the I-80 (because that sounds likely), definitely check this place out!
- And finally: my brother shaved off his hair today. I thought that was pretty interesting. ;)

Trucking lesson of the day: Learning to sleep on a moving truck is like learning to sleep on a roller coaster.

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