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We had to go back East to Milwaukee to go South-West. Near Milwaukee, we saw traffic lights on entry ramp to a highway. Probably for controlling the congestions.
As we drove South through Wisconsin, we saw houses surrounded by big farms. The houses had dome-shaped roofs, probably to avoid accumulation of snow on the roof. The soil of the farms was mostly black in color.
It was here that we first saw a 26-wheeler truck! Sure beats the 18-wheelers we see on the East coast. We also spotted a long freight train in the plains, the only thing moving in the rain! The visibility was quite poor, but there was almost no traffic.
We crossed the Mississippi river at 12:50am to enter the Midwest and the
state of Iowa, "You Make Me Smile". We entered Iowa near the Davenport
"Quad City". The journey after this was mostly uneventful. Saw a truck
full of buffaloes. The vast fields extended on either sides of the road. I
didn't see anything that could stop the rain or the clouds. The photo
on the left shows the straight highway we travelled on.
The river names in Iowa were interesting. We saw North Skunk, South Skunk, and Middle Raccoon rivers. We crossed the Missouri river at 6:05pm to enter Nebraska, "The Good Life". We soon entered the rural area and the speed limit went up to 75 mph. Now there were lots of SUV's on the road, but the open pickup trucks were notably absent. We crossed the North Platte river around 6:30pm. It looked much wider compared to Missouri.
Only now we could see lots of trees, something very scarce in the huge open farms of Iowa. We went past Lincoln and stopped at a small town called Seward. While looking at the map, we realized that most of the counties of Nebraska are rectangular. Even most of the roads in Iowa-Nebraska are East-West or North-South, giving the map a grid-like look!