This bit of the trip is a bit boring. No gigs and it has been rainy, overcast, and freaking COLD! So not much sight seeing either. Frankly, I’m tired and ready to go home…but I’m jazzed to see Arctic Monkeys on Friday in Milwaukee, so I’m hanging tough.
So let’s summarize the last couple of days, shall we?
Council Bluffs to Des Moines
One thing that surprised me about my trek across Iowa was the large numbers of massive wind turbines! Yeah, renewable power! The turbines are massively huge and if that wasn’t amazing enough, they look like kinetic sculpture as the turn gently in the wind. With all the recent storms, I couldn’t help wondering how the windmills would fare in a tornado. Would they generate half a year’s worth of power, or would they snap like twigs?
Another weird thing I wondered as I drove along was…what substance is in bug guts that makes them completely impervious to windshield washing fluid? Do you hit the bugs so fast that the spot weld to the glass? Why can’t we invent some solvent that gets them off without scrubbing?
Des Moines to Davenport, IA/Moline, IL
Before I headed out, I wandered Des Moines a little looking for something meaningful to shoot. Tah dah…the state capital!
Well, it’s not a great photo, but at least it’s proof I was there. O_o
On the way to Davenport, I saw a semi with one of the blades to those windmills I’d seen the day before. I was so geeked out by how big it was and how the wind caught the blade and made it shake, that I followed the truck like a fan girl for a long time. GEEK!
When I got into Davenport, the hotel room TV was on the weather channel. It was beeping like crazy and the weather people were apoplectic. There were about a million tornado warnings all over the Midwest. Iowa was going to be in for some serious thunderstorms too! So Ellie and I ran out to grab dinner and then I spent the rest of the evening watching the weather channel while biting my nails. Baseball-sized hail in South Saint Louis?!?! Storms and tornados were hounding the homes of 90% of the people I’ve ever known! Thank goodness for facebook (which I also watched obsessively). Everyone’s fine though. I even got a text from my neighbor. My house is still standing. Whew!
I think I dreamed about flying monkeys that night, but I’m not sure. ;)
Moline to Rockford
When I got up Thursday the storms had made it seriously cold, so I didn’t even attempt any tourism. Poor Ellie though, she’s completely bored of this trip and convinced that she will never see her sumptuous back yard ever again. However, she still hasn’t stopped hopping from the back seat to the front seat over and over whenever the car stops. And, I swear, you can hear a ‘sproing’ sound effect when she jumps in the car, but as soon as we’re on the road, it’s all harrumphing and whining.
It wasn’t long before I started seeing familiar town names. The weather was still crap, grey and cold, but when Ellie and I arrived we went on a long walk anyway. Nothing special because Ellie doesn’t much care if we’re in a park or a parking lot, so long as she can sniff every thing along the way, it’s the best walk she’s ever been on.
I did make an attempt to find a local state park, but after some driving, the GPS guided me into a pristine, neat little trailer park and declared that I had arrived at a 2,000+ acre haven for campers and hikers. Uhm…close, but no cigar. I hate to admit it, but I was tired and hungry, so I went and got a delicious Jimmy Johns sub and went back to the hotel.
See how adventurous and exciting I am? After I ate my sub, I accidentally took a nap too. Thrill a minute, I tell ya!
Despite being nearly wrung out by this little adventure, I’ve been listening to the Arctic Monkeys all day, so I’m starting to really get excited about the show.
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