Tonight we are in Indianapolis.  Driving west today out of Shadyside we took I-70, known 100 plus years ago as the National Road, built to facilitate westward movement of a growing nation. John’s paternal great grandmother used to tell about traveling west in a covered wagon from Belmont County Ohio to Red Cloud, Nebraska.  I imagine that today we covered much of the same ground.  Fortunately we did it in a car with airconditioning.  Because today was hot.  Very hot. Grandma Workman was made from sturdier stock than I.

The most striking part of today’s drive was how the land opened up and became flat as far as the eye could see once we got west of Columbus.  Either side of the road was planted in corn, not measured in acres, but in miles.  And it was green.  Really green.  Well, all except for the deep gray thunderheads that filled the sky behind us.  John is anxious to see a serious thunderstorm on the plains.  That makes one of us….Tonight in Indianapolis we have severe storm warnings.  In the year since Buddy and John have been parted, John has apparently forgotten what a coward Buddy becomes at the first rumble of thunder.

One of my goals on this trip has been to try local foods in local restaurants.  To experience what the people in each area enjoys as their specialties.  Today’s local offerings were frogs and brain sandwiches.  I passed.  Even MY culinary curiosity has limits.

Tomorrow we plan to get on the road early.  We have a deadline as we must get Diana at the airport in Omaha, NE. tomorrow night.  Our route will take us through the rest of Indiana, across Illinois, into Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and finally into Nebraska. It will be an ambitious day of driving.