Westward Ho! - Day 4

Hailing you from Clive, IA, where the Tweets and I are ensconced at the Super 8 with a little over 600 miles to go. Today traversed western IN, the width of IL and eastern IA. Weather was cool and fall-like this morning against a middle-of-the-country blue sky. As we headed west, the sky stretched further and further to the edges and filled up with cotton batting clouds. Only a sprinkle soon after we set out, so the bugs didn't get washed off the windshield.

In all the states from New England west, signs warn that fines are doubled in work areas. In IL, they're really serious about it: just ahead of construction zones, large signs warn that hitting a road worker will cost $10K and 14 years in jail.  Also big reminders that the blood alcohol limit is .08.

At first I thought they must have a bunch a reckless drunks mowing down construction workers, but then I realized that the ENTIRE STATE is under construction, so if you were to hit anyone anywhere in Illinois, it likely would be a road worker. Almost the entire length of I-80 (~180 miles) is under construction.

Gas prices have evolved as we've moved west. In New Hampshire, regular unleaded was running about $3.52/gal. Today I paid $3.78 in IL. Here in Clive, I found it for just $3.55, but I suspect the price will be going up again as I head towards CO; it's always more expensive there than in NH.

I've also noted that there's been no fast food along the way. I don't mean there haven't been fast food establishments, just that at none of them has the food been fast. (Of course the "food" isn't food either, so it's a double oxymoron.) The shortest wait I've had was about 4 minutes; the longest about 15. For a salad. Unbelievable. If jobs are so hard to find, why aren't these people 1) happy they have jobs and 2) working at them? I've never seen such sullen, unmotivated employees. Are the corporate bosses too busy counting their money to be concerned with performance at the individual outlet level?

And while I'm on a rant, I can't help wondering whether mid-westerners have a greater or lesser appreciation of sexual innuendo than the rest of us: a gas station chain named Kum and Go - really? Have to say, though, I was delighted to find their windshield squeegees basking in a bubbly froth of insect remover. I hit a bug the size of a bird that exploded all over the front of the car. (From the looks of the remnants, it was a huge grasshopper.) New Hampshire definitely doesn't have the market cornered on insects.

Looking forward to miles and miles of the Cornhusker state tomorrow...