Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of winter
“Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
This Iowa haze ain’t like anything I know.
We couldn’t hold out any longer. We hit the road! It wasn’t at all about getting out of Forest City. It was all about starting to take a chunk out of the 1500 miles we have ahead of us to get this baby home.
The day started as usual. Cold. Windy. Gray. Today we had the added bonus of “winter haze”. A bit different than the mid-August haze that we’re used to on the East coast, but - OK - this is all about new experiences.
Our planned first stop was going to be Kansas City. But since they still were in the midst of a winter storm today, we decided to simply get a couple of hours driving ahead of us to make some forward progress.
Before we left, Lisa wanted to check out some of the “gently used” models in Forest City. She’s thinking that this one might work should we decide to get something a bit more rugged down the road.
Back on the road, we decided that Des Moines, Iowa would be our next layover. Capital of the Hawkeye State. Home of the Iowa State Fair. Centerpiece for the Iowa Caucuses.
This gave us an opportunity get the rig up to speed on both state roads and the interstate. And it handled beautifully. A really, really nice ride. Quiet. Smooth. Comfortable. It was so nice that we were really disappointed that we couldn’t keep driving. But we weren’t going to test the icy/snowy roads ahead of us.
So we settled in for the day. Feeling a sense of accomplishment that we got a day (ok, a couple of hours) of driving under our belts.
With all that driving, we figured we’d treat ourselves to breakfast. For dinner. At the Ankeny Diner. This is not a diner trying to be old-fashioned. It’s an old-fashioned diner.
Lisa’s idea of a “treat” is much different than mine. Getting back on that spin bike next week ain’t gonna be pretty.
By the way, photo credit for the Iowa road at the top of this post goes to Lisa Lengel. She took this with her iPhone while travelling at 50 MPH.
