Somewhere in Illinois
The next three days were spent leisurely heading north through Illinois, using a combination of Interstates and backroads to see the local scenery. And what, pray tell, did we see? Fields of Corn!
In several areas, we saw quite extensive wind farms.
Our first night was on the Illinois River near Peoria. The campground was in an area with extensive earthworks on Upper Peoria Lake. I’m not sure what that was about.
The next day, we drove north through Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois. This whole area feels nondescript. It’s very odd.
The scenery got more interesting after that, with small rolling hills and more Fields of Corn. There were also fields of Soybeans, but they were not nearly as impressive 🤣.
We stayed overnight in northern Illinois and experienced our first hard rain of the trip. It continued to rain during our visit to Wisconsin.
Our goal for the last day was to drive the Great River Road of southern Wisconsin.
We headed for Prarie du Chen and began the trip northwards. This is where Armand (Carl’s Father-in-Law) hauls his grain from his farm in Viroqua to be loaded on barges and taken downriver.
The Mississippi was nearing flood stage, making for spectacular vistas as we slowly made our way northwards.
One can only imagine a raft of lumber 270 feet wide and 1550 feet long being moved down the mighty river. It must have been an impressive sight!
Our journey through this part of the heartland was complete! Now, we will spend time with one of the two families living in the heartland as we reach nephew Carl and his wife, Dr Kari, and the Tubridy pride-and-joy, Theodore!
