Road Trip - Indiana, Scottsbluff, NE to Rock Springs, WY 07-26-14

After driving a little more than 400 miles today I am truly too tired to blog.  I've gone to sleep twice just sitting here with my fingers on the keyboard!  So, here are a few pictures from Chimney Rock and a couple flowers.  Tonight I am in Rock Springs, Wyoming,  and will drive on I-80 to I-15 tomorrow and I'll be on my way south for home.

 

Here is the famous Chimney Rock, It stands near some bluffs which diminish its  grandeur slightly.  But imagine walking for days from the east, over the flat land currently covered in corn.

This  austere building is the visitors center, filled with drawings, photos, paintings, engravings of this rock.   The story will have to come later.  Sorry.

 

I have the faintest idea of what this flower is, or even the family it belongs to.  Anyone know?  There is a very faint silvery line on the outside edges of the leaves.

This is Gaillardia (or Blanket Flower) growing near the parking lot.  It is the only one of its kind that I could see, so I suspect it was planted or transplanted in the hope it would reseed. 

 Most of the blooms have gone to seed, so maybe there will be baby Gaillardia  all over the place next year.
#   #   #

Road Trip - Indiana Grand Island to Scottsbluff, NE 07-25-14

After driving another day across Nebraska I can attest that it is mostly flat and mostly covered in corn.  It would have been a dull day except for my stops at two quilt shops.  Other than those high points it was more flat country planted in corn with an occasional soybean field.  There weren't even any animals and it wasn't until late in the day that I saw six horses, a couple dozen cows and a smallish feed lot.  There was the Great Platte River Road Monument which stretches over I-80.  It seems to be a privately run entertainment/educational business, but I'm not sure because I didn't stop.  What on earth is it doing arched over the Interstate?  Not enough room in this wide open country?

http://archway.org/about-the-archway/

 

 

 

I really enjoyed this shop in Cozad, NE a tiny town just off I-80.  The owner and her helper were friendly and helpful, there were half a dozen happy customers while I was there and they have some great sale prices.   They do online sales and I plan to check them out when I get home.  You can also, at www.prairiepointjunction.com

 

They have a wonderful selection of fabric and also many colors of felt and patterns to go with.  Be sure to look at the display furniture - the owner has a great eye for unusual pieces that offer excellent  ways to display the products.  There is a great old pie safe that I would take in a second, although what I would do with it is beyond me at the moment.  

I did buy fabric, some that they had on sale, mostly for the philanthropic efforts of Surfside QGuild.  I choose children's prints, but there was a dearth of little boy prints, but there are a few that will do either girl or boy.  I'll keep looking.

 

 

The reason I diverted from I-80 and drove northwest to Scottsbluff was to see Chimney Rock again.  There is a story behind this, but it will have to wait for another day. 

 

I'm taking I-80 all the way to I-15 and going south through SLC, St George, the Virgin River Canyon, Las Vegas, Barstow and on to home.  Maybe Monday.

#   #   #

Road Trip - Indiana Omaha to Grand Island, NE 07-24-14

I drove only about 200 miles today, but had a fun day instead.  I visited the American Quilt Study Center/Museum in Lincoln, NE.  And also visited two quilt shops in connection with Row by Row.   My eyes are extra tired tonight, so I will only post a few pictures and hope I can post more in the morning.  The first pictures are of the $2.50/a yard fabric I bought on Tuesday at Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights, IL.  Not very bright, I suppose it could be over-dyed if needed, but I will probably just use it, as is, for a backing.  It is good quality fabric, it just didn't appeal to the customers who came into this shop.

The yellow area with the cross hatches is about six inches at the widest point.

The stripe with the green "lettering" is about three inches wide.

 

I don't know how many years it has been since I saw a rotary dial phone like this.

Notice it has a modern connector at the wall.

 

 

It was part of this "vignette" at one of the motels I stayed in - it was located in the area that once was  called the "elevator lobby". 

 

Due to trees, buildings and signs this is the best image I was able to take of the Quilt Study Center/Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  The parking lot sign in the foreground can't be removed - at least I can't remove it.  There is construction going on behind the pink section of the building and I was told it will be more gallery space, so people will be able to see even more quilts at each visit.  They don't object to photos, just flash cameras, I'll post some quilt pictures later.
 

 This is the sculpture in front of the building. In the picture above it is just to the left of the parking lot sign.  It casts interesting shadows.

 

This house is in York, NE, where I stopped at a quilt shop.  What caught my eye is leaning against the very large elm tree on the right.

Another Barn Star and a flag that appears to be made from a shipping flat. 

 

Gotta get to bed.  Tomorrow I will have to make the decision to go home through Denver and over the mountains, or go down I-15 through Salt Lake City, Utah,  Las Vegas and Barstow.   Both have pros and cons.

#   #   #



Road Trip - Indiana Davenport, Iowa to Omaha, NE 07-23-14

Lots of pictures tonight to make up for the paucity of yesterday.  Several views of the same thing to give the subject clarity.

What kind of a creature is this? 

It was at one of the entrances to the University of Iowa and I was thinking it might be a Jayhawk, but that is the Uof Kansas mascot.  Wikipedia says that Iowa is the Hawkeyes - so I suppose this is supposed to be a hawk.  Weird.

I have been trying to figure out what these lines in the fast lane of traffic are for- they go across the lane rather than between the lanes, but are about the same length.  I saw a sign about a pavement paint test way on the other side of Iowa and can't believe they need hundreds of miles of paint tests.   Maybe they are markers for tracking speeders by plane, but I wonder if they could be seen from the air and, besides, there were no signs warning of  "the eye in the sky".   The lines are 10 to 12 seconds apart at 70mph.

There is part of one at the very top of the picture.  It is a real problem trying to photograph them! The line at the bottom is the lane separation line.  Any ideas?  

The most interesting thing I saw in Iowa is the Rest Stop with this towering wind turbine blade out front.  The gentleman at the bottom left had been taking pictures and I asked him if he would be in my picture to give an idea of the size of this thing.  We see them after they are installed and I have seen many on flatbed trucks on the highways, but to stand next to one is simply awesome.

Without the man there is no way to imagine the full size.

This old guy stopped to read the sign, giving me another comparison.

 

Inside, besides the toilets, vending machines and huge map of the state, there was a frieze of placards with comments about wind turbines, here are just a few.

 

This is a tile mosaic in the entry (between the outside door and the inside door) of a light bulb.  It even has the correct screw threads.  It is quite beautiful by my arms are not long enough to take a picture of the entire floor. 

Here are some turbines at work, just a few miles beyond the Rest Stop.

These turbines are mixed in with utility poles, but there are about a dozen in the image.

One thing I noticed a lot was the filthy cars on the road.  They have a sort of light tan mud, especially on the back windows.  I include this picture of a side road that is graded and I guess that is the natural color of the soil.  I can't imagine that they haul in dirt from somewhere else.  A car had just gone past on that road (traveling from left to right) and the dust it created still hangs on the right side of the picture.  I tried for a picture of the back of a dirty car, but they didn't come out.  You'll have to take my word for it!

#   #   #

 

 

Road Trip - Indiana Kenosha, Wisconsin to Davenport, Iowa 07-22-14

 

 

I suppose it is logical that the states that have heavy winters would need to do their road work in the summertime.  But it is really annoying for the tourists  - like me.  Barriers of every shape and size.  I wonder why some of the diagonals slant a different direction.

Only 256 miles today, but some of them were hunting for a couple quilt shops on the Row by Row Experience list - like Quilt Play in Grayslake.  I might try to get one row pattern from each state I have yet to go through, but I know that Colorado doesn't have any shops that are participating  - nor do AZ and NM.  So far I have four patterns two from Indiana shops and two from Illinois shops.  I didn't go far enough into Wisconsin or stay long enough to collect a pattern.  Quilt Play is a nice little shop with a wide selection. It is necessary to buy their kit to get the snowflakes already cut out with fusible on the back.  The other shop I visited was Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights.  It was very difficult to find and I had to call twice for directions.  They were not very helpful and the sign on the street is very small.  I finally snagged three ladies coming out of JoAnn's in the nearby shopping center and one could give me the names of some adjacent shops and I finally found it.  Found a great "Ruth McDowell" type fabric on the sales table for $2.50/yd and took all seven yards. 

I saw the sign for frozen custard too late to pull and had to make a convoluted back track to treat  myself to a medium cup of MANGO.  It was delicious and made a filling lunch.   And isn't it a wonderful glowing color. 

There were several signs saying that a driver cannot retrace their route to get back on the roadway.  There was an arrow pointing in this direction, but I couldn't  figure out the conflict between Do Not Enter and Exit Only.  I finally found the actual exit and eventually a side street with some shade so I could enjoy my MANGO frozen custard.

When I got on I-80 and finally came to a rest stop I spent some time straightening maps, looking for my cell phone which was hiding from me and just relax out of the traffic for a bit.  They have a great play area for the kids with a teeter-totter front and center.  I was thinking I  haven't seen one of those for decades.  Two boys of about seven years old came up and have it a try, but didn't find it very entrancing.  Not as much fun as killing somebody in a computer game, I suppose. 

 

People say that Kansas is very flat, but I have never found it so - it sort of undulates.  But this area in southern Illinois is amazingly flat.  I wonder if  the Mississippi River has caused the flatness by flooding over great areas in centuries past.  This was very close to where I crossed the river.  More corn.

And more corn.  The light was shining through growing cloud cover and gave an eerie light.

And more corn behind a fringe of tall weeds - might be Heterotheca grandiflora.

A great almost sunset.  The sun kept popping in and out of the clouds.

It was strangely like an autumn twilight, but it was 88F and humid.

The clouds moved on and the sun was dropping lower, at 8pm it was 86F.  Supposed to be cooler tomorrow.

#   #   #



Road Trip - Indiana Up to Wisconsin 07-21-14

It was a long day with lots of problems.  When I left Logansport, IN, I immediately hit a detour onto narrow country roads with no shoulder to speak of.  No where to go if a problem developed

 

I followed this truck for what seemed like days.  And then the truck stopped; I couldn't see around it, so I just had to wait until it moved on.  

It was stopped for a road repair that must surely have been an emergency.  Nobody would schedule it on a detour from a road with such high truck traffic.  The guy in the yellow shirt is the "flagman" sans flag.

These big trucks were in a hurry - both directions.

You can see how far ahead of me the truck is in less than a mile.  There are also lots of motor homes on the road, glad I'm not driving one of them on this country byway.

 

I stopped in Crown Point, IN, to visit one of the Row by Row shops, a tiny store with mostly a selection of traditional fabrics.  They did have fat quarters on sale for $1/each, so I added a few to my fat quarter box.  This cute quilt was hanging in the restroom.

 

I only took eight pictures all day because as soon as I got back on the Interstate there was heavy traffic, construction, and, on I-294 that bypasses downtown Chicago, many toll booths.  The first toll was $1.50, but about 25 miles further on there was another toll booth.  I told the lady I had just paid a toll and she replied that if I was going to Wisconsin I would pay a toll about every 20 - 25 miles.  She was right:  another $1.50, $1.80, $2.25, $2.80!!!  Such a nuisance.  I got off at the Kenosha, WI, exit, checked into a hotel, and went to meet Kay Sorenson, who lives about ten miles from the exit ramp.  We had never met before, but we read each other's blogs.  We had dinner at a nearby ancient pub and then she showed me her studio, which is the top floor of her house.  Such a treasure box, with lovely antique oak thread cabinets and tables.  It is awash it her colorful finished and 

in-progress quilts.  But by this time I was on my last leg and had to get back to my motel.  I actually drove on the unfamiliar highway in the dark, something I told you I would never do.  But I had been over it once before and there was much less traffic at 9pm and the construction workers had gone home.  Thank heaven! 

 

So, now I am ready for the road again.  Back down I-94 and I-294.  I wish I could avoid it, but it is the most logical way to go south to I-80 westbound.  Hope to stop at the Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE.

#   #   #