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.

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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.

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