We were actually a little sad to leave Des Moines - Elizabeth & the boys really enjoyed their seafood meal last night at a restaurant called Splash (I only agreed to go because I thought Darryl Hannah might walk in...); and I really enjoyed paying the bill at the Sheraton Hotel this morning - $ 139 for a suite for the five of us - now that's what I call a good hotel !!!
The 350 miles or so to Chicago was extremely dull. The Iowa landscape becomes flatter and quickly loses its charm and about lunchtime we crossed the Mississippi River into the state of Illinois. While Iowa has an abundance of corn, the one thing Illinois seems to have an abundance of is State Troopers. They're everywhere, stalking traffic in their inconspicuous little white Town cars. We saw more traffic cops here than we have in the rest of the 3,000 miles put together. After an irritating 20+ mile detour for roadworks (that's something else we've found an abundance of in all states...), we finally reached some....wait for it...traffic !! Funny how you can miss other cars sometimes...Anyway, we have a day off tomorrow to see some sights, maybe shop for some more boxer shorts, before we re-start the college tour thing on Thursday. In the meantime, we have been getting some strange looks since we've been in Chicago. Maybe, the Old West style has left its mark - admittedly, our dress sense has changed over the past 10 days - judge for yourself...
Elizabeth had decided that drinking straight from the bottle was the way to go - it really saved on the washing up !!
