We leave Nebraska and arrive in Joliet, Illinois.

Tears and hugs and "I love you's" began the day.  The little ones don't quite understand why we cannot stay longer and are certain we will be there again tonight.  Ethan understood as I took him to school that he would not see me again for one year.  If Jacob takes a Post Doc overseas for two years, it may just be 3 years before I see my grandchildren.  The tears flowed freely - I am not doing well with this.
It goes without saying that the day began with breakfast mixed with two or three rounds of Chick Chick.  I do not think that the children will ever forget Chick Chick.  Ethan had cake for breakfast - it is a food group!
We all left almost at the same time.  Sara went to the Cornhusker hotel for a Librarians conference and Jacob took the little ones to the UNL day care/CDFR lab on his way to university class and I took Ethan to School, and we left Bill at the house to pack up the car.  Whatever we have left behind, gets left behind and becomes property of the management (unless the item is too small or too large or not the right color etc.) in which case the item will be in the mail next week.  Ethan and I left a little early so that he had time to shop at Cabredlo's (the nearby gas station store).  This trip to Cabredlo's is a tradition.  Grandma takes each child, one by one, to the store to shop for goodies.  It is a time to just spend one on one time with the little kids and the only rule that has to be obeyed is that you walk hand in hand with Grandma and you do not run ahead.  You can buy whatever you want and it is yours to keep (however, if you leave it on the table, it may just get eaten).  So items sometimes don't quite make it home - they get eaten on the way home or soon thereafter.
After I got home, the car was packed up and so Bill and I just locked the house and by 8.30am we were on our way to I-77 to Rte. I-80 east and Joliet, Illinois.
Along Rte. I-80, as along some of the route yesterday, there were clumps of Prairie Grass here and there.  At the Nature Center, they have a whole field of this particular grass.  Some of the varieties of this grass grow over 7ft tall and the notation on the wall of the Nature Center about this particular grass stated that it has roots that are as deep into the soil as it has grass growing on the surface.  Can you imagine 14+ feet of plant that is grass?  Our poor little lawn in Prescott has a lot to learn about putting down roots etc.
We saw a windmill on a field yesterday that put me in mind of the windmills made at the Toowoomba Foundry that makes Southern Cross brand windmills that draw up water from underground for cattle.  They make good use of the wind in this part of the country (we were in Iowa at the time I saw them.)  From time to time we have seen huge vanes (for the wind farm windmills) on the back of the Tractor Trailers.  Today, between Lincoln and Joliet, we saw numerous wind farms.  The vanes did not seem to be moving too fast and some of them not moving at all.  These wind farms are expected to produce electricity from the action of the wind.  I do not know how successful they are but there were hundreds of the windmills as far as the eye could see. (Looked up Wind Farms in Iowa and they have a daily computation of how much electricity is expected each day and wind speeds and expectations etc.) One may wonder just how do they assemble these monolithic windmills - guess it has to be done on the ground and then winched up to standing. It is obvious that they do not put up the central pole first and then attach the vanes.  After all, who has long enough arms to hold one of these massive vanes up so that someone up top can attach the vane?  (Even if they used a cherry picker crane to hold up the vane to be attached, it would be pretty impossible due to the wind that is always blowing). It put me in mind of Don Quixote - he and Sancho Panza would have a field day with the wind farm.
From time to time  on this trip we encountered tumble weeds.  They were not big ones like the ones we saw in Wyoming in 1974 when we were on our honeymoon.  The Wyoming tumbleweeds were monstrous in size and not a good idea to hit one with your car (might need more than a new paint job if you hit one).
We were traveling I-80 and in Iowa, we took a detour (read that wrong turn at an exit we were not slated to use) and so we visited some area's the general traveler does not see.   We had no idea where we were but kept turning corners and when we came across a gigantic Casino replete with full to overflowing parking lot, we knew that sooner or later we would find an entry back to I-80.  We were really happy to see the arrow to I-80.  The Casino's do not build in an area not accessible from the main highways.
One thing I noticed about the fields in Iowa, the Hay fields were filled with rolls of fresh hay and looked like green "Little Debbie" cake rolls in the field.  Some fields had these rolls of hay set in lines and they looked like caterpillars crawling across the field.  It was obvious that some of these  "caterpillars" had not moved much for at least one year, maybe two years (due to the grass that was growing around their perimeter).
In Iowa, in contrast to the other states we have traversed, they do contour farming.  This is a method of water conservation and seems to be a viable farming method.  I remember when this method of farming was introduced to the Darling Downs (just outside Toowoomba).  My father was skeptical that it would work, but it did and crops were better as a result.  He was old school and the new fangeled methods did not appeal to him.  He was not a farmer, but would have gone farming in a heartbeat if my mother would have agreed.  I would have gone with him - I love being outside. (so staying inside to quilt stuff really chafes me).
Last night we experienced high winds in Lincoln and when we had our family picture session, we got pretty blown around.  Today, as we drove, we could feel the wind gusts against the car.  In Iowa on I-80 they do not have wind socks like they have in Colorado.
I noticed the Cell Phone towers along our route.  They were VERY tall - almost to the clouds it seemed.  I wonder who is the brave soul who climbs the towers to fix things that break?  Or even who climbs the towers to erect them and set them up?  Not me, that is for sure.  3feet off the ground and I am queasy.  In New Mexico, saw a cell phone tower that was decorated with burnished metal Native American symbols.  In the Phoneix valley saw a cell phone tower that was disguised as a Palm Tree.  What next?
Saw a series of signs along the highway that reminded me of the old Brylcream rhyming signs.
 It read, "Urban sprawl,
             Ain't so pretty
             Save our farms,
             Build in the city.
The farms we passed were rather pretty with most of them having white salt box type homes nestled in the trees.  They also seemed to have mowed their lawns and the whole thing was meticulous and manicured.
Soon after these signs, we came to a signboard announcing "Earlham".  Stewart and Elena graduated from this college.  We made the trip to their graduation from Johnstown when David and Sara were very young.
The fall foliage is in full swing in this part of the country - I hope that the leaves are still on the trees when we get to New Hampshire and Maine.
We saw some rare things today - two Hertz yellow and blue trucks, about 15 Nissan altima cars like ours, and above ground pool (it is really too cold to even think about using an above ground pool this far north), and we saw a "Toy" Car - a Smart Car - with the top down.  Well, really it had the cloth roof wrinkled up to reveal the inside cab.  Just guess they had it wrapped and shipped from the showroom.  First saw these cars on our trip to Europe a couple of years ago.  They are so small you could almost put them in your pocket instead of parking them.

We found the baseball division race on the radio and our Diamondbacks are battling the Milwaukee Brewers and it is a nail biter.  We arrived at our motel in time to watch the game from the 3rd inning to the end.  We will go out to eat dinner after the game is over.  There are some things you do first, before you do anything else.