Day 6 began early for me because I wanted to wake up and leave the motel before someone caught me sleeping in the parking lot. Even though the back doors of the truck is tinted, people can still see inside when they come close. The front doors were covered by the windshield visor which wraps around the door and windshield. So I left the motel at 6:45 am without brushing my teeth or anything. There were 52,819 miles on the odometer.
I headed south to the rest area, planning on taking Highway 153 to Nebraska, but then decided to go ahead and try to catch Nebraska a little bit north. Brushed my teeth at the rest stop and tried to get some sleep, but couldn't. As I headed back north, I decided to go ahead and take a picture of Audray's motel. When I made my way back at approximately 8:00, there were only 2 cars left in the parking lot, and the other 4 already left. I'm glad I left early. After taking the picture, I headed north towards to Rock Port.
Rock Port has the distinction of winning two softball titles (women's high school team I believe) in 1984 and 1985. It's a small town of approximately 300 people.
Then I headed west into Nebraska to pick up and send some poscards. I stopped at the border town of Brownville, Nebraska and picked up some postcards at the feed store. Brownville was settled in the 1800's by Richard Brown and is Nebraska's oldest city. It's a historic town with some nifty buildings. The people I met were elderly and very friendly. After writing and sending the cards, I took pics of the Welcome signs for Missouri and Nebraska, and headed back to Rock Port, Missouri.
In Rock Port I purchased some postcards from the Texaco off the highway and mailed them at the post office in town. Up north, what I've noticed is the US Post Office is always located in the business district (main street) of small towns. This post office was located on OPP Street (that's O-P-P, not "oops"). Strange itsn't it.
Then I drove north and east into Iowa. What did I see in Iowa? Corn fields, corn fields, and more corn fields. I've never seen so many corn fields in my life. Did I mention corn fields? At this time of year, the fields were all harvested and nothing is growing except shrubs.
The gasoline here has 10% ethanol, and it wasn't so bad. I got the same gas mileage and it was the same price as the regular unleaded. Ethanol combusts cleaner than the usual stuff and cheaper for the consumer. In fact, Iowa has the cheapest fuel prices in any of the states I've traveled so far.
I stopped in Winterset, Iowa and visited the John Wayne birthplace museum. It wasn't something I had planned, it was just something I saw as I drove. Winterset is a very friendly town. Most of the people I saw were older probably because everyone else in school or something. I highly recommend anyone to visit Winterset if they want a small friendly town feel.
The John Wayne museum isn't really anyting to write home about. It's a small one bedroom home at the corner of 2nd and South street. The tour of the house cost $2.50, and it mostly had movie pictures and memorabilias. It turns out that John Wayne isn't the actor's real name, but Marion Morissey (not sure if the last name is correct). Betty, the lady who took me on the tour said that John Wayne is the most recognizable non-fictional person, second only to Abraham Lincoln (which I guessed correctly with about 4 guests and one clue- the clue was that it was an American. I would think Jesus would be first or possibly George Washington, Adolf Hitler, or Muhammed Ghandi. What about Jesus? Maybe it was best-known American.) The house was purchased by citizens in 1982 after the Chamber of Commerce bought it and wanted to convert into offices. The citizens were afraid it might be torn down. The house in the back was purchased after the owners set it up for sale, and now is used to sell memorabillias. There is no photography allowed in the birth house.
One of the guest from a page of the guest book contained Ronald Reagan's name. The address listed was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Reagan visited the museum back in 1984 when he was running for relection- probably the most exciting thing to happen to Winterset up to then. Also, the movie Bridges of Madison County (which I didn't see) was filmed in this area. That's why so many of the post cards have bridges on them because they have become historic.
Then I went into Des Moines, Iowa. I liked what I saw, but I was so tired from the lack of sleep last night that I just pulled into Easter Lake in the southeast part of the city and took an hour nap. Many of the cars on the border of the city were very dirty...I assume car washing is decent business in this area.
From Des Moines I travelled to the center of Iowa near Eldora and set camp at Pine Lake State Park. This is one of the least expensive places to camp at $4 per non-electric campsite including shower and restrooms; however, the only problem is that the restrooms and showers were locked. I guess I got what I payed for. Again, I was the only camper at the park this evening. The campgrounds can accomodated over 100 sites, but the sites were compacted together.
And what was around this area? Corn, corn, and more corn!
After making a campfire and warming up my delicious dinner consisting of refried beans, I stood around the tree near the tent. And as the redness of the campfire faded, I just comtemplated a few things: Why can't this dream go on forever? I wish this land would never-end, and I could meet more people and experience more places. I realize I'm lucky to have this opportunity to do something like this. Sometimes it gets lonely, sometimes it gets scary, but it's still a wonderful experience. It's going to be another fearful night, but I'll be okay tomorrow.
Lightning lit up the sky in the distance so I expected rain.
