pushing forward

Today was simply a matter of driving 500 miles, with nothing viewed at all, except a couple of rest stops along the way.  We have a picture of Lonna at an Iowa rest stop near Ames that we'll put in once the Android does the instant upload.  The sky behind her is a beautiful blue, and the rest stop itself is a monument to progress in the Interstate Highway System.  It's extremely clean, and each seems to memorialize one aspect or another of the area.  This one is a salute to covered bridges in southern Iowa, although our photo is taken next to a pillar reflecting the railroad industry, which by itself is quite a story. We assume the pillar probably lights up nicely at night, but at noon you lose the effect.

We're in Topeka, KS, tonight, where we finally found a Super 8 that's quite nice.  Getting here was a trick because it meant doing an exit from the Kansas Turnpike and going in circles until this place popped up.  The turnpike doesn't allow you to look ahead to see four or five nice hotels grouped together, from which you can choose the best.  But this Super 8 is pretty decent.

The Rest Stop photo should upload by tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's a rooftop photo from home, taken just before we left.  Yesterday I scraped snow from much of the roof in hopes that there won't be so much snow melt damage.  Hopefully the snow will ALL be gone when we return and the overhang isn't destroyed by the ice.   Click the photo for a larger view.  Pretty sky, huh?

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