Saturday, August 2, 2008

Corn, Corn, and More Corn, and Then . .. .

Anyone who thinks Ohio has a lot of agriculture and corn, in particular, is sadly mistaken in comparison to Iowa. I've never seen anything close to that much corn . . .as far as the eye can see. No wonder the Iowa farmers like the concept of biofuels because they can make an incredible amount of it!

So after hours and hours of corn, we were just getting ready to cross into South Dakota in the early afternoon. We were making great time in our 660+ mile trip to end up in Murdo, SD for the night, when . . . .

Earlier back in the last stages of Iowa, we all noticed what looked like a "crop duster" flying parallel to the highway. Turned out NOT to be a crop duster, but a police plane measuring our speed. 10 miles from that point the Iowa staties were lined up . . . 3 cars nailed all 6 of us and a hapless guy from Florida who was following us as part of our group. . . .82 in a 70 zone (good thing they weren't measuring it about 5 minutes earlier because we might've ended up in the pokey).


In the "takes one to know one" category, though, with Jeff Mathias as a current SWAT sergeant in Columbus and Danny Whittier as SWAT-retired, we got the lenient treatment and got off with a "slow down" warning. And, we did.

I'm glad we took it a bit slower because the scenery in South Dakota is absolutely gorgeous . . gentle rolling hills as far as the eye can see. And crossing the Missouri River as we descended down into a valley was a breathtaking sight. I'm told that our trip to Deadwood tomorrow through the Black Hills is even more beautiful.

We arrived about 7:30 p.m., took a quick shower, then adjoured to the Buffalo Restaurant in Murdo for dinner. And finally, from the "it's a small world" file, the guys at the next table turned out to be from Waverly and Portsmouth (OH for all you out-of-towners) and left Friday at 4:00 p.m. after work . . . they rode really far in a very short amount of time as we had about a 7 hour head start on them.

Up tomorrow for the last 150 miles to Deadwood. See you then!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good thing Jeff was with you! I hope you are taking a lot of pictures. You should post more to this blog if it is possible. Have fun!

Anonymous said...

Hi Cheryl, JD, Buford, and Dad!! This blog is cracking me up. I can't wait to see some pictures from "no-panties Tuesdays"! Be careful! Back to studying....

Anonymous said...

I guys, looks like I'm missing alot of fun maybe I should have gone. Oh well! I'm having just as much fun here spending money. I love it. Be safe and continue to have a great time. Say hello to Jeff and give him a hug.

Anonymous said...

no-panties Tuesdays!? I think me and Cathy are missing out on a lot!