Sunday, September 07, 2008
Day 2: Shiloh, IL to Kearney, NE Across Missouri, into Iowa and through half of Nebraska we saw hundreds of thousands of sunflowers today....
Day 2: Shiloh, IL to Kearney, NE 
Across Missouri, into Iowa and through half of Nebraska we saw hundreds of thousands of sunflowers today. They were stunning, growing wild by the roadside, and even through the middle of some of the massive cornfields we saw along the highway.
As we were passing through northeast Missouri, Ken kept telling me he was seeing windmills. Since he was driving and I was working sudokus, by the time I looked up, the windmills were gone from sight behind some trees. After several instances of this, I thought he was just kidding around. Then finally we reached a point where I could see them also. We exited at the town of Rock Port, Missouri, following the direction of the windmills, and found many, many more of these huge windmills.
Later we learned that this past April, Rock Port became the first city in the US which generates 100% of its electrical demand with wind power. In fact, they generate more than they need and sell the excess to other communities.
We arrived in Kearney, NE about 6 p.m. and checked into our hotel. Fixed a little dinner and settled in for the evening.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Day 1: Peachtree City, GA to Shiloh, IL This sight dominated our day today as we traversed Tennessee with all its beautiful green mountain...
Day 1: Peachtree City, GA to Shiloh, IL 
This sight dominated our day today as we traversed Tennessee with all its beautiful green mountains. We were lucky to have clear to partly cloudy weather all day and never saw a drop of rain. That will probably change tomorrow as we cross Missouri and most of Nebraska. Isolated snow showers in Yellowstone tonight and into next week.
Nine hours and 580 miles today got us to Shiloh, IL, a suburb of St. Louis. As we crossed Kentucky, we learned that all of their interstate rest areas have wifi service. We were very impressed. We can't even get paper towels in the restrooms at Georgia rest areas!
At the KY welcome center, we saw some huge sycamore leaves:
Then we used our PDA to check out some info on sycamores. We learned that sycamores can live to 500 years or more. After 200 or 300 years, they become hollow. As far back as colonial days, people competed to set records for how many people would fit into a hollow sycamore. One record holder fit 15 men on horseback or 40 on foot. Also colonists sometimes used hollow sycamores for shelter. An Ohio sycamore has been recorded as 15 feet in diameter, 48 feet in circumference.
Across Missouri, into Iowa and through half of Nebraska we saw hundreds of thousands of sunflowers today. They were stunning, growing wild by the roadside, and even through the middle of some of the massive cornfields we saw along the highway. 
Later we learned that this past April, Rock Port became the first city in the US which generates 100% of its electrical demand with wind power. In fact, they generate more than they need and sell the excess to other communities.
