Sept. 10

We traveled to Rock Island, IL, today. Iowa is one rolling-hills state! Again, we passed hundreds of miles of corn fields and also hundreds of windmill farms mixed in with cattle and mostly corn fields. I love windmills and hope our country will use a lot more where they can be utilized efficiently and economically. We met a series of trucks hauling parts for a windmill. It is hard to believe have huge these things are. One propeller on a three-propeller windmill is about 20 feet or more longer than a flat bed of an 18-wheeler. The "pole" has to be hauled on at least six trucks in parts. The base parts are wider than the truck and bulge out from the flat bed. I think they are really beautiful and do not pollute or smell bad. Over our trip, I'd have to say we have probably seen a thousand, including the ones we saw in Canada. On our trip 26 years ago, we saw a windmill farm before we got to Oakland, CA. I was amazed, and I am still amazed that we can produce clean power with them.
Phil was tired when he got up this morning from not sleeping well. He says he has nagging pain. We have called and gotten an appointment with his urologist for next Wed. We were hoping for Mon., but he had none until 3:40 p.m. Wed. We were hoping to go to SC to see all the children and grands Wed., but that is on hold until we know what Dr. Tieng says. We are so very thankful this did not happen earlier in our trip. His previous stones have been a nagging pain over a long period of time before two lithotripsies for each one finally blasted the things into passable sizes.
Tomorrow we are aiming for somewhere around Cincinnati. They do not have a campground in Cincinnati. We will stay in North Bend, OH. The reason we picked this track home was because I wanted Phil to eat at a Skyline Chili Restaurant in the Cincinnati area. I got him eating this from the frozen food section of the grocery store years ago. I had eaten it in Cincinnati on two occasions. It is supposed to rain a lot in the Cincinnati area tomorrow. I hope we can get set up in dry weather and eat and get back dry! We may have to dig out the ponchos if it is raining that much. Then Sunday we will travel home and end our marvelous adventures. We have traveled 112 days on this adventure and put around 13,000 miles on the truck since we left May 24. The great news is that we will begin more Sept. 26 when we go on our annual coastal camping trip to Huntington Beach State Park for two weeks; Wilmington, NC, for five nights; and a month in the Outer Banks. We are praying all tropical systems and Nor'easters STAY AWAY!!!! I encourage you all to go on adventures of your own. We have a wonderful, beautiful country!