Day 27--Chicago, Il. through Iowa to Omaha, Ne.: Driving the Super Slab

I don't know how many times we have heard from Will in the past few weeks, mainly when he's sitting behind us in the car in his car seat, "Hey guys...guys...hey mom and dad, can I go home?" Well it was nice to finally be able to tell him today that yes, we are on our way home. Most of our day today was spent in the car driving from Chicago to Omaha, Nebraska, so there really aren't many pictures we took today--plus I think I'm almost pictured out for a little bit. I could have taken pictures of the beautiful green rolling hills and fields all throughout Illinois and Iowa, but I didn't. It is amazing to see mile after mile of farming and agriculture growing because that isn't something you see every day in the desert of Utah. We live in a very beautiful and very diverse country, and we feel blessed to have been able to see it the way we did.

So, today it was back to the "super slab" for us since we had to drive close to 500 miles. As I look back on our Route 66 journey, I remember that a day of driving 200 miles or so was a long way. I totally understand the need for the interstate, but it isn't half as much fun as the journey we went on from L.A. to Chicago. So off we went, boys with their headphones on, arguing about whether they were going to watch Scooby Doo or Indiana Jones, and Daren and I listening to the Grapes of Wrath book on CD. (It took us forever to find that on CD--we finally did, ordered it and had it sent to our hotel in Chicago so we could listen to it on our way home--it is 18 CD's long, and we'll be lucky to finish it by the time we reach home, almost 1,500 miles later!) It really is ending up being Daren who is listening to it because I get caught up on stuff on the computer and I can't read and listen at the same time, so the computer wins.

The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 by John Stienbeck, and I'm borrowing a brief synopsis of the book from the online site Wikipedia: "Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. In a nearly hopeless situation, they set out for California's Central Valley along with thousands of other "Okies" in search of land, jobs, and dignity. The novel is meant to emphasize the need for cooperative, as opposed to individualistic, solutions to social problems brought about by the mechanization of agriculture and the Dust Bowl drought." (I couldn't get rid of the underlines) The Joad's journey from Oklahoma to California via Route 66, which is why we wanted to read the book, or listen to it, after traveling the same ways, although in very different circumstances. It is very interesting, and I'm going to try to listen better.

One little town we did stop in is Dixon, Il., one of the childhood homes of President Ronald Reagan. Now I'm not one to get too into politics in this blog, but what an amazing man and president, and I still remember some of his presidency as I was going through jr. high and high school during those years. We were in California not long after he passed away, and we went to the Reagan Library, and the memorials there were very moving.
This was our sunset tonight--I'm a sucker for beautiful sunsets and there have been some amazing ones on this trip. This was somewhere near the Iowa/Nebraska border. And that's it for pictures! Pretty low key today.

You know, this was the first day in a long time that we were driving on the freeway instead of the frontage roads and small town roads. I got to thinking about that and I actually missed coordinating the guide book with the internet guide, looking for this or that sign, road, or "what once used to be here." I learned so much about small towns and their own histories, and every day brought a new journey with new sights. As we drove on the freeway today, I would look out from time to time as we would pass a small town here and there and wonder, what's their story? What are we missing out as we zoom by? That right there seems to sum up our trip. I love that Daren and I are of the same mind in that we would rather take the path off the main road and see where it takes us. Believe me, traveling with Daren has always been an adventure like that, and it's a blast! Well, it's on to bed now so we'll be ready to drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming tomorrow. Good night!

Total mileage to date: 4,990
Weather: a little of everything--storms with rains and 73 degree through parts of Illinois, sunny and warmer around 80 degrees through Iowa
Premium gas price paid in Dixon, Il.: $4.15