WFRV

We've had a fabulous night's sleep in preparation for our longest drive of
the trip. We're up at 6:30am, drop off our rental car when Enterprise opens
at 7:30am, and at 8am we're where we wanted to be, on I-80 heading west.
Only 660 miles to go; eleven hours of driving plus stops for gas. It's
going to be a long day. (A note to those with teenagers: waking them up
every day at 6:30am on their summer vacation does not go over well.)

Now we're in the vast middle part of the country, where all we see for most
of the day is corn fields, barns, and an occasional cloud of dust lingering
behind a pickup on one of the dirt roads that skirt the highway. Some of
the corn fields have mysterious little signs that identify them as "AH1835"
or the like. No Butter And Sugar here. The amount of open space here is
different than anything we have on the East Coast; it's obvious that someone
from Montana could have wildly divergent political views from someone from
Manhattan. Gun control? Clean air? What's to worry? I'm listening to a
podcast with the three young men who started beyondpartisan.org; they're
urging for reasonable discourse. Is that so bad?

There is minimal traffic for most of the day. The only place we see a crowd
of cars is at a giant casino right off the highway in the middle of nowhere.
There are also a lot of For Sale signs; people are selling huge parcels of
land everywhere. Is there a connection?

Some amusing sights during the drive:

A bumper sticker saying "Eschew obfuscation."

A truck with an arrow on the back pointing left that says "Passing Side."
Another arrow points to the right and says "Suicide."

On one exit ramp there are three of those large blue signs that alert
drivers to Food, Gas, and Lodging. The signs have nothing listed
underneath, just a blank blue square. At the bottom of the exit ramp sits a
small barn and silo and nothing else is visible. Finally some truth in
advertising.

A sign reading National Dairy Cattle Congress. Didn't know they had their
own.

We drive and drive and drive. Breakfast and lunch are eaten in the RV; we
only stop twice for gas. At one of the stops we remove the drawer that has
been falling out and realize it's been installed incorrectly. Good thing we
brought the tool box; it's fixed in two minutes. The speed limit is 70; we're
making incredible time! By 6pm we are about an hour away from the
campground and decide to stop for dinner rather than wait. The wait staff
at the Ground Round is so very friendly that one of the kids remarks on it.
We will see that amiability again at the campground where everyone gives a
friendly wave and some take the time to chat. We are set up at the
campground by 8:45pmand decide to go for a walk. Unfortunately it's a small
campground penned in by fields of crops (which we can smell have been
recently fertilized with cow manure), an RV sales store, the highway, and a
gas station. Not exactly scenic but we're only here for one night. (There
are motorcycles everywhere and we're seeing signs for Sturgis 2006 - some
kind of rally, we guess. These people travel with their tents and
everything else they need on the back of a motorcycle; we are driving an
entire house. They are the modern cowboys, and the men look good in those
leather chaps.) We find the mini golf and do the nine holes, then head back
for bed.

Rain On A Hot Tin Roof.

This evening the air is cool and breezy, finally, so we open the windows
wide. Then we realize that with the shades up we have zero privacy.
Luckily the day shades let in air so we keep those down and open the two
fans in the ceiling; they act as attic fans to cool off the RV. The
campground is quiet and we fall asleep easily. Around 3am Denise awakens to
the sound of rain on the roof. She's also seeing flashes of lightning.
After a moment it occurs to her that if it's going to rain the ceiling fans
have to be closed; both of them are over beds. By the time those are closed
the rain is coming in the side windows so those get shut too. Suddenly
thunder arrives, great rolling claps and lightning flashing too. Counting
the seconds between lightning and thunder to see how far away the storm is
doesn't work; it's all happening at once. The thunder is startling enough
to make you jump, and the sound of the rain on the roof is deafening; we are
not separated from the elements by four-by-fours and insulation, an attic
and a roof. Sam sleeps through it all.

# posted by LDW @ 12:55 AM