Illinoise into Iowa

Today, was our first cloudy and rainy day.  We left Crawfordville Indiana at 7:45am.  It was still dark and 58 degrees.  There was a gorgeous sunrise in the south as we drove through the rain and headed NW.  We passed an Elk Farm and saw a beautiful Buck near the road.  We stopped a the Ernie Pyle Memorial Historical Site.  Dick remembers his efforts in the war and was at the National Cemetary in Honolulu went he was buried. 
Soon we entered Illinois and crossed from Eastern into central time Zone and gained an hour.  We passed through Lincolns Home town in Springfield, but didn't stop....was still raining.  Dick noticed how black the soil was in the freshly plowed fields.  We stopped at a McDonalds for pitstop and coffee and were surprised to see the booths and tables full of Amish people in their long dresses and dark caps....escorted by very quiet suited young teenage boys.  We crossed over the Illinoise River at beardstown and the sky finally cleared!
Some things we saw as we drove that struck us as unusual were a huge brick barn, a wooden Holland type windmill built with brown wood, and corn and soybean fields that go on and on.  We crossed the Mississippi River at Davenport, Iowa, and the corn and soybean fields continue to go on and on. 

Ernie Pyle's historic site.

Soybean headers on the combines are 25 to 30 feet wide....and just drive down the road to get to their fields.

Corn being stored in a pile after harvesting.

A restaurant at the Amana colonies.

Where we ate our dinner...the attic of the bakery and cafe!

The Little Red Wagon kids store.

Making Kettle Corn.

Here we bought some rockyroad fudge.

At the Antique shop.

A final place we visited today were the Amana Colonies........and they were having their Octoberfest today and the town was filled with people and polka music and bratworst and kettlecorn being availiable as we walked through the town.