Day 63 -- Corn, corn, soy, corn and courtesy parking in Indiana

Travel   From: Murdock, NE   To: Goodland, IN   Distance: 563 mi (905 km)   Travel time w/brks: 10 hr 53   Distance since start: 13,906 mi (22,361 km)

Tuesday 8/22/2006

We got up around 6am, said good-bye to Gene and hit the road just before 7am. Today's drive would be one of the longer ones of this vacation trip. We headed north and got onto I-80 east. We stopped at a Flying-J to buy some fuel. What is nice about the Flying-J stations is that they are RV friendly. They actually have a combined dump-station and fuel fill at the same place. And using those facilities are free if you buy fuel. I dumped gray water we had collected so far, especially since I knew we would not be able to dump at the next place either.

Buying diesel at a combined pump and dump lane at Flying-J in La Salle, IL

After I had bought fuel and dumped we took a lunch break at parking lot of the Flying-J. Re-energized we hit the road again. I purposely skirted south of Chicago and approached our next stop, Goodland Indiana, from the west. Our next stop is our second WBCCI courtesy parking of this trip. I had used the technique outlined here to find this particular place. The idea was to use this as a spring board to visit Purdue University in West Lafayette, as part of our college hunting for Isabella. This place was really in the middle of crop fields. Feed corn and soy to be more specific.

A common scene in farm country is experiments with modified crop, special fertilizers and new pest controls

Nestled in by soy and corn fields is the Goyke's house in Goodlands Indiana

Corny WBCCI Courtesy parking in Goodland, Indiana

Next to the Goyke's barn with water and electricity

The Goyke's treated us for dinner over in their house. Impeccable hospitality, if you ask me. I stayed up and talked with them for a while before we went to bed. It is quite neat to be this close to a corn field.

It would seem like you can run and hide in the field, just like in the movies

Feed corn (intended for cattle, etc)

While looking over this huge field of feed corn we learned that the basic unit of measurement for these square fields you can see from the air is known as a "section". A section is 1x1 mile. There are also fractions thereof. One of the big differences between corn for humans and feed corn is how it is harvested. The former is cut by a machine well above ground. The remains are plowed back into the field. With feed corn, it is cut at ground level, bundled together into large heaps which sit for almost a year (under covers) after which it is all ground up before being served. Yum!

Since we are almost at the factory now I decided we could use our toilet again. This is the first time since Juneau, Alaska.

Campground   Name: WBCCI Courtesy Parking with the Goyke's in Goodland, IN   Our hookups: 20amp + water   WiFi: No   GSM service: Yes   TV Channels: Don't know   Cost: FREE!!   Reservation mode: Phone call

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.