Saturday, 1 May 2021
My plans to get an early start and see several places in Iowa before going to tonight's campground got torpedoed during the night. It turned out that fever I had last night meant I was actually sick. I slept until about midnight, then got up to deal with diarrhea, back to bed and slept until about 3:00, got up for more bathroom time and to walk the dogs, then back to bed and slept until 8:00 AM. I never sleep that late, but I'd lost a lot of sleep during the night.
By the time I decided I actually had to get up (not only did I already have a reservation in Iowa but also the campsite I was in had been reserved by someone else for tonight), I realized the most I'd be able to ask of myself was to simply drive straight to tonight's campground. No sightseeing on the way.
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| today's route - sort of |
We finally got on the road at 9:30. I drove northwest, mostly along miscellaneous MO highways (MO 145, MO Hwy B, MO Hwy N) until I got to I-35. Given my somewhat precarious physical condition, I knew today wasn't the day to spurn interstates. I-35, the highway that runs throughout the US from Texas to Minnesota, runs directly through Des Moines.
In northern MO, I saw more of those watch-out-for-Amish-buggies signs - and then I saw an actual Amish buggy along the road. I also saw an Amish man using a team of horses to plow a field.
Princeton, pop. 1,166, claims to be the Birthplace of Calamity Jane.
I take notes as I drive, so I can remember later what I saw along the way. My notes for this drive are right on the edge of illegible. Partly that's because many of the roads I took weren't great, partly it's because we had a very strong wind today that blew us around, and partly it's because I wasn't feeling well and was having a hard time staying awake besides. What a day.
Then I came to a sign: "The People of Iowa Welcome You." I thought that was nice.
Soon after crossing the border, I stopped at the Iowa Welcome Center, which I was assured online was open. It was open, but I was surprised at how strictly they enforced the mask-wearing rule. While a welcome center worker was helping me, a man came in to join his wife who was already looking at brochures - and the man wasn't wearing a mask. The worker who was helping me told him in no uncertain terms that he'd have to leave and put a mask on before coming back in. He left and didn't come back. Don't know what his problem was - his wife was wearing a mask.
The worker was very helpful trying to figure out what I might want to see in Iowa. I hadn't realized until she mentioned it that the "bridges of Madison County" are here in Iowa. I did know that "Field of Dreams" is here. I'm not sure how interested I am in either of those, but it's nice to know. I came away with an armload of brochures to sort through.
I drove north on I-35 to Des Moines, then turned east on I-80 about 35 miles to Newton, home of tonight's campground.
I was really sorry to miss the stops I'd planned for today's drive - the county courthouse in Mt. Ayr, the Freedom Rock in the neighboring town of Diagonal, the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset. But I'd started so late it just wasn't possible. What's more, my driving became more erratic as time went on, and I actually had drivers honk at me twice because I was having so much trouble staying in my lane. I realize now I had no business being on the road because I kept falling asleep. It was just luck, I guess, that kept disaster from happening. I've driven when I was sleepy before, but it's never been like this.
We were also lucky that the campground wasn't nearly as full as I'd've expected for a Saturday night, so I was able to walk the dogs without any disasters there either. Tonight was an early night.
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