Sep 13-14: Cheyenne, WY to Chicago, Ill

No train stuff today and not many photos, since I'm on the I-80 speedway. I departed Cheyenne and the high country of this western region at 9:30 am and headed east for an overnight stop in Omaha. This was an 8-hr drive (with a couple of ‘stretch’ stops) along the smooth 500-mile magic carpet that is Interstate-80. Most of the trip was at 80 mph (I cranked my cruise control up from the 75 mph posted limit in order to keep up with all the other non-truck traffic). Even the roadworks areas, sometimes 10 or more miles long, where we were diverted onto a single lane on the opposite carriageway, were posted at 65 mph, which is the speed limit for trucks.

The wide, high-country rangeland vista of Wyoming changed gradually to a wide cropping vista as my GPS announced “Welcome to Nebraska” at Pine Bluffs. From there, the scenery remained one of broad undulating plains of corn and hay. Wind-farms could almost always be seen on the horizon. Trucks (mostly 18-wheelers) came by at the rate of about one every 30 seconds… sometimes a fleet of them and always with one overtaking the others. On my eastbound carriageway, I spent a considerable amount of time in the left-hand lane.

Nebraska spans two time zones. The western third of the state is in Mountain Time while the eastern two-thirds is in Central Time. Somwhere east of Ogallala, NE, we changed from Mountain to Central Time. My iPhone got the message but my watch (and the car’s dashboard clock) continued to tell me lies.

Just before Big Springs we made the slight descent into the shallow valley of the South Platte River and the agricultural scenery became somewhat greener, with a lot of centre pivot irrigation and forage bailing being evident.

By North Platte, where the North and South Platte rivers converge to become the Platte River, and which I bypassed by remaining on I-80, things were looking even greener. Not having gassed-up before departing Cheyenne, I stopped at Kearney for fuel, a stretch, and a snack. Near Grand Island, I-80 leaves the Platte River valley and heads straight east (literally!) across to the capital. I let I-80 take me around Lincoln and across the Platte River once more, and I was into Omaha on the advertised at around 6:00 pm for a snack dinner from the hotel shop.

After a sleep-in and deciding against breakfast, I was eastbound out of Omaha at 9:30 by my watch, but 10:30 in reality. Directly onto a busy, multi-lane I-80/I-29 with Sunday appearing to have increased the traffic density, I totally missed crossing the Missouri River, although I expect that I’d have been unable to view the river from the bridge, anyway. The Interstate takes me straight through Council Bluffs and out of town, into a rolling green Iowan agricultural landscape that is strongly reminiscent of Otago in New Zealand.

I head NE for twenty-three miles before taking up a long, straight, easterly heading across Iowa to Des Moines, outside of which I pause again for fuel, a snack, and a stretch. Eastward again, and just before I get to the Rock Island/Moline conurbation, Mrs GPS cleverly diverts me via I-280 until I reconnect with I-80 twenty miles later. Concentrating on driving, means I’ve descended the gentle grade into the forested Mississippi River valley and am almost on the bridge before I realise it. I snap a silly, one-handed photo through my right-hand front passenger window. But Mrs GPS welcomes me to Illinois, and that feels good!

My magic carpet ride on I-80 continues slightly NE until I cross the Des Plaines River at Joliet and I fancy I can almost smell Lake Michigan. Next month, I’ll be sailing beneath this very bridge as we head southbound away from Chicago on “45 North”. I divert onto I-57/94/90 for the run up into downtown Chicago. Once again I negotiate the intensive cloverleaf of the dreaded Jane M. Bryne interchange and look down on my previous hotel, but this time it’s in daylight! I cross the Chicago River and am directed onto S Franklin St for a 9-block drive through deepest downtown to my hotel near the confluence of the Chicago River and its North and South branches. It’s been another 8-hr drive and I’m going to camp here for 8 days.Читать далее