Battle Creek MI to Litchfield IL

 Our first day on a road trip is always a revelation.  We left Gay and Rod's house and drove west on I-94 heading for I-65 in Gary IN.  We drove south on I-65 until we reached US 24 where we turned west to I-55 south in IL.  

 I was expecting rural beauty and we definitely got that!  We were witnesses to the grain harvest in the heart of the midwest.  For miles we drove through beautiful stretches of fields in various stages of harvest - before, during, and after.  We saw huge combines harvesting corn and pouring it into trucks (everything looked like John Deere farm equipment - green and large!) and saw the trucks being weighed before and after loading the grain into towering grain elevators.  We saw fields that had been harvested and tilled and prepared for another crop.

One of the things we commented on was the massive quantity of grain.  It is hard to imagine how and why people in our country are going hungry.  It really looks like there is plenty to go around - and we just saw a tiny part of the harvest in Indiana and Illinois. I am so thankful for farmers and the crops they produce!

The other "plenty" we observed was road work!  Wow - so many orange signs!  Even with all the road work we were not slowed down much.  This may be because we were traveling roads with less intense traffic. We chose our route to avoid the Chicago area.

 When we checked in to our hotel, we asked the desk manager what she would recommend for a dinner place - not a chain restaurant.  She recommended the Ariston Cafe - a Route 66 original that is still in operation.  This was a great find.  The special of the day was fried chicken (all you can eat - kind of wasted on us, but a good price) and it was delicious. It is an old fashioned restaurant where the food is all prepared on site.  The place was wood paneled and cozy and filled with locals. 

When we are traveling and Dennis is driving, I let my attention wander and sometimes I am quite amused and delighted by the things I see.  We were driving through so many tiny towns; I began to notice the "welcome to" signs introducing them.  Sometimes the signs had slogans or mottoes for the town. My two favorites were both on US 24 in Indiana.  The sign for Goodland Indiana said "Goodland, our name says it all."  The sign for Kentland Indiana said "a good place to call home."  I loved both of these for simplicity and pride of place.  One of the things I love about traveling is that peek into the places that people call home and the knowledge that we have so much more in common than we let ourselves see.  I love the midwest - the green fields, the beautiful trees, the open farmland and prairie.  Tomorrow we will drive across the whole state of Missouri and we are looking forward to it.