The Big Picture

We woke up this morning in Carroll, IA after making it to the Carroll Brewing Company last night before it closed at 7:00. There was no one else there except for Martha, the bartender and Andrew, a friend of Martha’s. A few minutes later Jen, the tap room manager at CBC, showed up with what appeared to be a week’s worth of bar pretzels.

Before long it was closing time but Jen wasn’t interested in kicking us out and instead we sampled more of their products and talked about Iowa. Jen told us about Snake Alley, the crookedest street in the world, which with 1,100 degrees of turning beats Lombard Street’s mere 1,000 degrees, even though Lombard Street is longer. And we learned, or confirmed, that Iowa produces more corn than any other state, including the Corn Husker State, which ranks third behind Illinois.

When we finally said goodnight we thought it appropriate to teach Jen a bit about the T in return and gave her a ride around the block.

Checking into the Super 8 hotel (not the one on the hill) we met manager grandmother Joni, who’s real name is Jon after her grandfather who lived to 104 years old but thought it better to add the “i” and who’s been contently living at the Super 8 for 23 years. A very nice woman indeed and we imagine, in the interest of space, most Christmases her 16 grandchildren come visit her rather than the other way around.

Since it was getting late, and we didn’t really feel like driving anywhere for dinner, we walked next door to the unassuming Bloomers bar and restaurant where we had a very good ribeye steak and an exceptional boneless pork chop.

This morning we’ve set off towards Burlington, IA which lies on the banks of the Mississippi River, certainly a lofty but worthy milestone to pursue. We’ve already crossed the flooded Des Moines River and will skirt north of Des Moines itself, although the number of 2,000′ antennas and 500′ windmills we’re starting to see growing in the corn and soy bean fields tells us we’re getting close.

Looking at the map of where we are and where we still need to go can at times be disheartening unless one looks at the bigger picture or recalls certain sayings about a bad day of fishing. For example:

• Distance to the Moon: 239,000 mi
• Circumference of the earth: 24,901 mi
• Approximate distance to go: 1,150 mi

So it seems we’re doing okay and, in fact, if the ’10 continues performing as she has been we may even get to the Model T Ford Club of America’s National Tour at Richmond, IN by Wednesday evening just to say hi.

We’ll keep everyone posted on our progress.