Is Iowa Part of France? Bug Splats; Un-Windy-Mills; Is That Supposed To Be Cornbread?

Today was a long driving day. We departed Iowa City in central Iowa heading for Great Lakes, Illinois, our staging point for next week's Messages of Hope and S.O.A.R! events in Evanston/Chicago. The terrain has flattened out considerably since western Iowa, which had some nice rolling hills.  One of the things I've noticed since we arrived in Iowa is the resemblance between the Iowa state flag and the French tricolor. I researched this and found that Iowa’s flag design reflects the state’s history as part of the French Louisiana Territory. The flag was designed in 1917 by Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Iowa. (For those, like myself, with difficulty reading small type, the ribbon being held by the eagle reads, “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain”.)

Messages of Hope documentary producer Chris Lavelle had warned us about Iowa’s bugs and the effects they have on your windshield when travelling at speed on the Interstate. His advice was right on target, because when we switched drivers today, the front of The Bus was a mess. Suzanne does not like looking through the yucky remains of 85 different species of insects while she drives, so I was tasked to clean up the mess. Fortunately, we have a long-handled scrub brush for the task, and 5 minutes later we were back on the road. 

We must have passed about a hundred of these tall wind generators on I-80 today, and it was very sad, because none of them were turning. They weren’t being lazy, there was just no wind. I’m sure they are excellent investments over the long term, but on days like today, you’d better be able to connect to the grid. I was surprised to find that Iowa is the #2 state in the US for wind power generation (4,418 MegaWatts), following Texas (10,648 MegaWatts); California is number 3 (4,287 MegaWatts). Gee, and I thought that those brilliant Californians were at the cutting edge of sustainable energy and that those backward Texans only used dirty, polluting, ecologically nasty oil... another Greenpeace myth shattered!  J   

To celebrate our crossing the Mississippi River again, eastbound this time, I offered to take Suzanne to dinner. I cleverly timed the event so that we could eat at the small restaurant on the Navy base, saving loads of money. She had a small salad, baby back ribs, cole slaw, and corn bread, while I had a small salad, fried chicken, potato salad, and cornbread. Unfortunately, I made one serious strategic error. I failed to understand where we were. We were in Ilinois. Illinois is north of the Mason-Dixon Line. As every Southerner knows from birth, anyone can fry chicken. Only Southerners can make corn bread. The cornbread was... well... amazingly dry... too sweet... truly awful... yet Suzanne ate almost all of hers. But then, she's from Pennsylvania.