Day 12: June 17, 2011, Champaign, IL to Apex, NC

Whatever charm the Heartland has had worn off.  As we headed south on IL backroads (route 1), the barns just didn't have the same Iowa and Minnesota old charm.  The towns also looked more run down than antique, but the farmland was prosperous and, in most towns, for sale signs were few and far between.

We crossed the Ohio River to reach Kentucky -- land of more rolling hills.  There were some white fences for horses and the trees became more NC-like (although the absence of pines was striking).  But there was still a lot of corn.  The hills started to grow as we neared West Virginia.

The drive through West Virginia down the WV turnpike was uneventful.  Either the coal mines aren't here or the environmental regulations are much better than we Denise drove through 30 some years ago.  We should go back and explore off the interstate a bit more to see if this was just clever engineering.

The only other thing of note is that WV has some tunnels that go through the mountains and DOWNhill in the mountain.  Denise wasn't so impressed.

The Northbound lanes had about a 5 mile back up due to construction in the tunnel (Catherine looked, but couldn't find any info about a wreck).  Catherine would have been mad if she'd paid the big toll and still ended up in an enormous jam.

The rest of the way home through a slice of VA and then through NC was an easy drive (with a small detour around a wreck west of Greensboro).

Take-home lessons.  First, Denise notes the the land we drove through was uniformly prosperous, with the exception of St. Louis' downtown which is simply deserted.  The homes are well cared-for and all the live stock was fat and sassy.

Catherine is simply astonished (and kind of disgusted) by the amount of land (number of states) devoted to the production of hamburgers.  She notes that some of the corn probably goes to ethanol and pig production, but we saw essentially no wheat or vegetable crops and only a handful of pig houses.

Both of us are still confused by the idea the Midwest is flat.  Some parts of it are boring and repetitive, but unless we were driving in a flood plain, there were no flat areas.  And even in the flood plains, we could generally see bluffs only a few miles away.  If you want flat head to eastern NC, SC, GA and parts of FL.

Finally while we both agree that Custer State Park, Badlands National Park, and the Niobrara River are worth a look, if you haven't been to Utah, Arizona and many parts of CA, head there first.  Not only are these places more accessible by plane, their landscape is much more impressive!

As always, it's great to get on the road, but it's even better to be back home!