June 15, 2018 - long hard road!

I think Iowa should do a commercial with the catch phrase “Iowa , where pool tables don’t need to be leveled”

Rt. 20 crosses both Iowa and Nebraska but is a very different experience in each.  In Iowa Rt. 20 is a very well maintained 4 lane highway.  It by-passes all the towns.  You see nothing but fields.  If you see a sign for food or gas, when you exit you will then be treated to either turn left or right 5 miles.  When you get there it may be gone or closed.  I don’t like Iowa, it’s just a nice straight road with a multitude of farms that all look the same.

Nebraska wants you to see their towns.  Rt. 20 goes through all of them so you get a feeling about the health of the community.  I traveled this road in 2014 on my G650 and it looked very healthy.  Many of those same towns are now closed up.  A gentleman joined me for coffee this morning.  He explained that in the past 5 years big companies bought up the farms and leveled the houses and barns so they could plant more.  They sweep in with enough equipment to till, plant, spray or harvest in one day then they are gone.  They don’t live in the towns or have lunch there.  The people that sold packed up and left.  This has all happened very quickly.  I asked why he was still there and he said his farm has streams and is relatively small.  The buyers only want big flat farms.  He and his brother live in the same house that they were born in.  He was probable in his 70's.

The beautiful road in Nebraska has been destroyed by the trucking industry. I had numerous detours, single lane with escort cars, single lane bridges and at one town the road stopped and I had to find my way back to a detour that I missed.

It was kind of sad to see where progress is taking us.  Pattie asked me tonight if I was going to turn tomorrow....Rt. 20 is a straight line across Iowa and Nebraska.  Yep, I am going north.