blogil: Toto, we're not in kansas any more

It’s the 25 year anniversary of the original road trip movie with Dan aroid- I would look it up but no signal here in the Rockies- I should not be writing but should be looking at the amazing view

So let’s go a few days back

We left Ohio and headed west through Indiana and Amish country- it’s not polite and against their religion to take photos of Amish- we tried but sinned a bit- though tried not to make it obvious- we drove through the Amish heritage trail and enjoyed the greenery and craftsmanship of the Amish ( got a souvenir)- other than views Indiana was not impressive- but a heritage site is a major point in Indiana- so state #25

Illinois was next- I have been here before so nothing new- but we detoured through south Chicago- Obama birth place- and though my brother is a big though not allowed to vote supporter- we hurried out of there.

We drove across Illinois and entered Iowa- and looked for a place to crash- but Davenport- a big city on the Mississippi river was fully booked- not a single room available- an unusual thing when there is no convention and no special event- the blame is on the weather- recent floods have blacked out all of eastern Iowa-so the population moved from their homes to hotels with generators- is was late already when we started calling ahead for a round- 2 hours later… we found 1 room and crashed- this is what happens after driving to much with cruise control- bad quality but still… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEQywpxnOGM

The next morning we looked for special attractions in Iowa-and believe me it’s hard to find- so we found a nice place that does wood work- on the left is a chicken

On the right is an Iowa style – Gym bicycle (it’s actually a schnitzel maker- a schnitzel hammer was not invented yet)

But the biggest attractions was Iowa’s world largest wall nit rocking chair- there are largest chairs but from other trees- or for other functionalities (like non rocking chairs)- but not like this

The bellow photo is a common Iowa view- the left silo is just a corn silo but the right one holds another type of grain- ICBMs- all of America’s rockets are stored in corn fields.

Amish country carriage and Amish food

Iowa has a bad rep- it is very green and pretty- but we missed the world largest Swedish coffee mug - again there are larger Coffey mugs- but Norway ones in Finland- but you can’t fiind a bigger Swedish one. So we moved on to the bridges of Madison county

My mother was excited so she hit this electric pole- the car survived but the pole was in pain- as a result- the west side of Iowa went dark

Lucky for us we moved on- escaped the CFPD (corn fields police department) and went briefly through north Missouri and drove by the city with no beds or showers in their suite (Kansas city) which is not in Kansas – and then we entered Kansas.

Usually a drive through any state would not count- but I did all there is to do in Kansas- and the list contains

And 3…

That’s it- nothing to do- s a drive through (6 hours) makes is # 26

Dorothy has no idea how grateful she should be for that tornado- we longed for a whirlwind for ourselves but were not so fortunate

By night fall we reached Colorado springs and we didn’t forget to say the sentence in the subject

I like Ohio- but so far Denver is the most beautiful state I have ever been too- so took a tour to the top of pikes peak- in the neigBearhood of 4000+ meters – making it my highest land point ever – and drove down on bicycles (real ones’ not Iowa’s) - 19 miles down hill thses are sock gloves the traditional photo