Omaha to Indiana

Day 9--
Rain, rain, and rain.  Oh, and rain.  Hwy 29 was closed for some reason so I took a detour through Iowa.  A 70mi detour on 2-lane roads in the rain.  Fortunately, the rain let up a little so I took this picture.

That's my image of Iowa before this started again.

I started driving in Omaha at 9am CST and got to Ginny's house at 10:30pm EST.  And my windshield wipers were on about 80% of the time.  The stretch through Illinois was the scariest.  And I truly mean scary.  There was no place to pull over to wait out the storm so I just had to keep driving.  At 40 mph.  The rain was so heavy that I could only see a few feet in front of my car and nothing ahead to know what was coming up.  The sun was just setting so that didn't help matters either.  Once finally clear of the storm, I stopped to finally use the restroom and talk to the clerk.  Turns out, there were 2 storm fronts and I was in the middle.  So I tried to stay in between them for the rest of the 100mi I had to go.

But I made it!  700+ miles and 11.5 hours of driving.  That was my "long" day of the trip.  The good parts...
1.  I took about an hour break to say hi to a blast from the past-- Leigh Josey (now Leigh Bills)!  I stopped in Columbia, MO and Leigh introduced me to her 1-year-old son, Elijah.  It was great to catch up and I wish I had had more time.  Last time I saw her was 2000 in Venice as I was going into the Guggenheim Museum and she was leaving.  I hope we can see each other more often than that now...
2.  Averil burn 4 cds of music for me which kept me entertained for hours.  Great music!  And no playlist so I had to keep "Shazaming" songs.  I'll write them all down some day.
3.  The detour through Iowa was annoying in that it added time and mileage to my trip.  BUT, I love driving the little roads and I got to see the Iowa countryside.  Very beautiful farm country and some fantastic looking farmhouses.  I want some of those front porches!!
4.  McDonald's at a truck stop was hosting a baby shower.  ???
5.  Showing up at CAG's to dinner, wine, and dogs.  And this one, Alice...