Day 17 - Rain, The River and Giant Broccoli

Our day started in Des Moines, Iowa with pouring rain. The kind of rain where the sky turns green and the drops are the size of grapes. "BEEP BEEP BEEP - THUNDERSTORM WARNING", says the weather channel across the bottom of the tv screen in the hotel lobby...just like ol' times I thought to myself.

I was hoping we'd hit a nice solid midwest thunderstorm at some point on our trip, and today we did. It rained nearly all day, and from what we saw, it was the last thing Iowa needed. We passed flooded fields and tornado torn trees. We found the underwater playground pictured above in Dyersville, near the Field of Dreams.

Water would continue to be the main theme of the day as we rolled up to the Mississippi. The countryside would change though. Fields were exchanged for rolling riverside forests. We got off the interstate and followed the back roads North. Instead of cookie cutter highway stops, we drove 25 mph through little river towns enriched with character from the mighty (and now swollen) river.

It was a drive of drives. Everything was a deep lush green, like driving through rolling Jolly Green Giant broccoli groves. Rain machine-gunned the top of the car. Lightning strobed the late afternoon sky. The windshield wipers were on high. And we were at complete peace, following the western bank north, with Johnny Cash singing of ghost riders on the stereo.