the queen travels: Corn, cows and country music

Sounds like a country Western song. And I guess that's about where we are. Awoke to blue sky with some sun and a few clouds. We were wishing for some clouds as it takes some of the heat out of the sun and isn't nearly so hot. We're suffering, and it's only high 80s, low 90s.
Spot on? Yep, and we were ready to roll, to the corn and the road west.

Had to stop at the Harley shop, Reiman's, in Kewanee, Ill. It was the perfect photo, Harley-Davidson bar and shield, a white bagger, an American flag and a water tower with the name of the town.

We got around Viola, Illinois, and I had to take a photo of a 10th year anniversary flocking. It was really too cute.

Ya just gotta love tacky pink flamino lawn ornaments.

From there we decided to go see the Lock & Dam #17, with the Dell Butcher tug. Little did we know that it was four miles in, and some of that road was not the best, gravel, dirt. But we got there without an incident, only to find that the area is locked and we couldn't get in. We wandered down a road and there was an open gate, so we took photos from there.

Got a photo anyway. Not sure of what all there is.

The might river herself.

Big tug, little tug. There are several of the small ones on the grounds. Kind of cool.

Continuing on our way toward Muscatine, which is on the border of Illinois and Iowa, we saw a yellow crop duster, swooping up and down, and around. At the bottom of his swoop he'd drop his dusting onto the crops. Was cool to see, and the yellow airplane was very pretty.

We also saw a tug pushing a barge on the Ole Mississip, and a big doe ran across the road in front of us, from a cornfield on the right-hand side of the road to a cornfield on the left-hand side of the road. I'm sure the corn was much better on the left-hand side.
We decided it was time to eat and stopped at Columbus Junction. There were several Mexican restaurants, and that should have been a clue. We went into one and found that while it was a restaurant, it was also a Hispanic store. The parents spoke only Spanish though their son spoke English. He helped us order as the menu was in Spanish and a little hard for us to decipher. I told him I couldn't eat really hot stuff, so ended up with a guarache. It was a puffy flour tortilla with chicken, cilantro, cheese, onions, tomatoes and. Guacamole. While we were waiting for our food they brought out chips and a kind of salsa I'd never seen before, kind of like the regular ones we're used to, but with pieces of avocado in it, too. It was very good.
The lunch wasn't bad, but as other Hispanics came in they looked at us as if to ask what we were doing there. We finally figured out that we had wandered into a Hispanic community. So, off we went on our road trip.

It seems as though we've been running through corn fields for days now. There is another crop that seems to grow along side the corn, or across the road from the corn, but we don't know what it is. We need to find out. It almost looks like spinach from a distance.

I think I saw an eagle today, though, as it was dark with a white head. I also saw an owl, and we both saw a pelican. That was pretty cool.
But the road is straight, so much so that I figure I could go back into the trunk to make a sandwich and leave the bike on auto pilot. You find yourself wishing for a curve, something, to break the monotony. However, the countryside is beautiful and continues to be green … mostly with the corn plants.

There's been a lot of flooding, with the Des Moine River way high, and trees in the water. I'd heard that some of the places we've been through have flood watches, so we've gotten through just in time, although I'd expect that last night's rain might have caused some flooding. There was still water around from it this morning. We've seen crops that have been ruined because of the rain, mud and areas that are still wet that you know are not normally that way.

We've also seen multiple wind generation farms today, in Illinois and Iowa. We rode amonst them, the gentle giants with their blades slowly turning. I do enjoy seeing them, and hope we get some at home someday, too. I don't find them offensive at all, but beautiful in their own way.
One other thing I've noticed, not just today, is that the guys have their big farm equipment, and the women have their riding mowers.

The heat isn't as bad as it was in Vermont as it's not so humid, but it's still taking its toll on us. We arrive at our motel in the evenings wringing wet and exhausted. But we are continuing to make our way across the good old US of A in a timely manner. I want to be in Montana at my friend's place by Friday evening. Jaz needs to continue on back to California.

I've created a new bottle holder ... my water is in the front of my vest.

Of course, drinking a lot of water creates the problem of what to do with the empties. My solution was to put them down the back of my T-shirt, and pull them out when we arrived at the next gas stop. I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I'm sure.

My job right now is to ride, and ride I am. Enjoying it, almost disliking it sometimes when the wind is blowing you sideways and you're racing hellbent, one step ahead of the rain, or nearly so. But it is a challenge, and so far, Jaz and I have met it head on and come out ahead. We've ridden in way more sun than bad weather. Hopefully it will continue like that.

Just so no one thinks I've forgotten, here's a shovel that would look mighty good on my bike, quite similar to the one I pack now. So be very afraid. This photo is from the motorcycle museum at the shop the other day.

We've stopped to see a number of memorials. Most of them have cannons. Really like cannons.

This memorial was a bit different, and was a part of the dedication just above. It was for multiple wars, not just Viet Nam.

Yep, a cannon. How can you not like something that looks so perfect an image.

Another memorial in the town where we had breakfast yesterday, Famoore's.

Lockheed Martin, the blimp hangar I mentioned yesterday. I couldn't post photos because I'd run out of room and had to fix that little issue. Thank goodness for Jaz, my attending computer nerd. Otherwise there'd never be a post.

A clock from Oil City. There are a lot of these free standing clocks around. This one is cool, "Gush with Pride." It's oil country, you know. The Hub of Oildom ... pretty interesting saying.