Day-22 .. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

A long, long day of .. driving.
Illinois - Missouri - Iowa - Nebraska

It all started well.  I said goodbye to Tom last night and gave Charlotte a hug at 4:40am and she gave me some energy bars and chocolate.  I was able to navigate out of the neighborhood and find Hwy.36.   The 142 miles from Decatur to the Mississippi River was a pleasant drive.   I picked up Quincy's AM station WTAD and enjoyed the information being given ..

birthdays and anniversaries, local news like : " the Jewish Temple B'nai Sholom was closing because they were becoming an older congregation and no new Jewish families were moving into town", and some more news that I should've picked up on ... Flood Water Level Warnings have been issued, and they gave river levels at different spots along the Mississippi.   Now, the bridge going over it had no issue, but .. I should've thought ahead about the .. Missouri !   More - later.

Hwy.36 is a nice 4-lane highway.   It's close enough to towns to allow me to get off and explore.   I saw this interesting church in Lakenan,MO :

St.Roses Catholic Church

A sign, next to the church, caught my eye :

 I'm not sure if the Priest wanted people to know ... ?

Down the road, I decided to explore .. Brookfield, MO.

On the way back to Hwy.36 I stopped at McDonald's to use their restroom.   On most smaller highways there are not 'rest stops'.  So I have to find places like this.   I feel guilty if I don't patronize them.   Since I'd driven almost 200 miles, I decided to order breakfast.   While waiting in line for my order I noticed a younger man (~20) also waiting.   I asked him how he was doing.  At first he was startled, he then said "OK, a little tired, I work 7-days a week, 5-days on a farm and 2-days at a garage."  I said "whoa!".  It then flowed (in 60-sec) ... "well, we have a baby coming, and we need to save up and prepare..".   His order came up and he turned to say good-bye and I put my hand on his shoulder and wished him well.
My heart was really touched.   It must be Sunday.

I thought, maybe, it was going to be a good day.   Found a couple more radio stations and listened to a eclectic mix of music and cruised down to the western Missouri border.   I planned to cross at Hwy.136 into Nebraska and start stair-stepping up to I-80.   No, no, no  ...  remember those flood water warnings ?  The roads leading up to the Missouri River bridges were under water.   Hwy.136, Hwy.2,  and I-29 were closed .. these signs were everywhere :

This is the view as I came to the 'end' of Hwy.136 :

I drove through Hamburg, Iowa and it appeared that the southern part of town had been under water :

I bounced all over Western Missouri finally headed north on Hwy.275, all the way to .. Council Bluffs, Iowa.   There I picked up I-80 and headed West, going through Omaha and driving by Lincoln.

I saw these same horizontal-row clouds last October driving into Wichita.  A day or two later .. snow & ice.    Hope not.    Surely it's too warm for this, right?   Oh yeah, this morning I heard that the Chicago White Sox home game the night before was cancelled due to .. snow!   ... 
It's almost May !

Screamed across I-80 and made it to Kearney.   Checked-in at a Holiday Inn Express and am now watching the 2nd playoff hockey game between the Colorado Avalanche and the San Jose Sharks.   .. ahhhhh, just what I needed !!

Tomorrow ... me and my conestoga-RavRover will navigate to Thermopolis, hopely via Hwy.26 out of Ogallala,NE  to  Fort Laramie,WY

start odometer  :  111442
4/28 odometer  :  112114

day miles  :     672
trip miles  :   5205