Carhenge and a different route to Wyoming…

In the 27 years that Al and I have been married, we’ve made probably 60 trips between Iowa and Wyoming. That adds up to 120 twelve hour drives….. 1,440 hours……. 60 24-hour days of my life has been spent sitting in a car driving between Iowa and Wyoming.

We used to go through Des Moines then take I-80 then up through Scottsbluff.  It’s an ok trip, but I get tired of Interstate driving all the time. Going that way we do get to stop at the cemetery where my dad is in Guernsey, which I enjoy because I don’t get there often.

Since they upped the speed limits, we now usually take Highway 20 all the way. It’s mostly two lane, but 100 miles shorter at only 730 miles. You can make pretty good time, and do the trip in 12 hours or so depending on your stops (and how fast you drive….have had a couple tickets over the years I do have to say).

But Nebraska is boooooring. We have already seen pretty much anything of interest to see across Nebraska along I-80 and Highway 20 over the years, so we just drive to get where we are going.  Then I found a website earlier this summer that made me rethink our trip this year and plan a different route:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ 

This is a fun site that lists “Offbeat Tourist Attractions”. As my husband would say, I’m a little offbeat anyway, so this was right up my alley! I searched in Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming to see if there was anything that we could stop at quickly to break the boredom of the trip.  You can get a map of each state to show the attractions along your route.

We could have stopped to see the Largest Crater in the US, or the Castles of Ida Grove, or maybe the Johnny Carson Display or better yet the Hotel Room Damaged by Michael Landon (seriously?).  We wanted to see the Two Headed Calf at the Gage County Museum in Burwell, NE, but they are only open on Sunday, and wouldn’t return our calls.

So we settled for Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska.

What? You haven’t been to Carhenge? If you’ve ever driven across Western Nebraska, I know you have seen the signs, but have you been there?

It’s a collection of old junk cars that are setup to look like Stonehenge.  It was built as a memorial to Jim Reinder’s father, who once lived on the property, by 35 family members. It’s now owned by a local group that maintains it. They even have a gift shop where you can buy among other things a flattened penny with an engraving of Carhenge.  If you really really want more information here you go: http://www.carhenge.com/

They even used a Gremlin, like I used to drive.

Just up the road from Carhenge, is a “quaint” little rest stop that is also on the Roadside America website:

It’s pretty corny, but makes for a fun photo!

It’s safe to say that we won’t do this route again. It was almost as many miles as I-80 (820 mi) but took much longer. It was a nice change of pace to see some new country through the sandhills, though. I can check Carhenge off my list of things to see (not that it was on there to begin with, but I can check it off anyway, right?).

I also found another website http://www.roadtripamerica.com that has lots of day/weekend trip ideas around the US. I have one marked in Missouri that I would like to do sometime in the next few months, and will keep it bookmarked to see if there is anything that we should see on any other trips as well.  

Check these sites out on your next road trip. Maybe you will find something new and interesting!

(we did get to see the World’s Largest Popcorn Ball through a window in Sac City, but by that time we were ready to get home and didn’t stop).

Biology 103: Evapotranspiration (or Why It’s So Miserable in Iowa Right Now)

We are in the middle of a crazy heat/humidity wave this week. Right now at 6:30 pm the heat index is 113°. It’s one of those days when you open the door and can’t breathe because of the humidity in the air. You stand outside for 2 minutes and are completely covered with sweat. (Especially those of us who already “sweat like a …..”).

In Iowa we seldom get much over 90° and 100° would be a record on just about any given day so why does it feel so miserable here? You can have 95° in Wyoming and it’s hot, but it’s bearable. You have 95° here and it’s completely unbearable.

The main reason is the Dew Point, which basically is a measure of how saturated the atmosphere is with moisture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point) . Here is a map of the forecasted dew points for Tuesday (from www.weather.com). A dew point of 75-80° is considered “oppressive” and dew points over 80° are rare in this area, although it looks like it’s going to be that high tomorrow.

The Dew Point gives the best calculation of the Heat Index. The Heat Index is the “feel like” temperature, or how hot it feels outside (much like wind in the winter gives you a Wind Chill that makes it feel colder than the actual temperature). I found a Heat Index Calculator here: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/heatindex.shtml, then looked up Wyoming & Iowa to compare since today we had comparable temps.

Wyo: temp 97°, humidity: 21%, dew point: 52°, Heat Index 94°

Iowa: temp 95°, humidity: 60%, dew point: 79°, Heat Index: 113°

How can that be? The temperature in Wyoming is higher, but it’s unbearable in Iowa.

I found an article today that explains it. Basically when you have low humidity and high temps you sweat but it evaporates and cools you down. Your body temp doesn’t raise that much. With high heat & high humidity you sweat and sweat but since the air is also wet, your body can’t evaporate the sweat, and subsequently can’t cool down which can lead to heat stroke or heat exhaustion very quickly.

But why is it more humid here? You expect it to be humid on the Gulf Coast, Florida and the southern East Coast, but why in the Midwest? Simply put: it’s all the corn! The corn (along with all the other plants) release water vapor into the air.  We don’t have the ocean, but we do have PLENTY of corn.

From www.weather.com: “Evapotranspiration is the total amount of water that is transferred from the earth's surface to the atmosphere. It is made up of the evaporation of free water surfaces (lakes, rivers, soil moisture, etc.) plus the transpiration from plants. Evaporation of water from soil with high moisture content (due to passing thunderstorm complexes) and the transpiration of water from tens of thousands of acres of a mature corn crop contribute to an atmosphere that is sopping wet “

If you are interested, here is the full article: http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/evapotranspiration-corn-belt-humidity_2011-07-13

Did you learn anything new?

It's that time of the year....

There are many many things I miss from Wyoming.....I miss the mountains, I miss the quiet, and I miss family there.

And there are things that I like about Iowa that Wyoming doesn't have.....like green all summer long, and not much wind!

But one of the best things in Iowa that we really don't have in Wyoming (although I do remember stopping at Alcova when I was little at a stand there) is this:

Sweet corn! On every street corner they are starting to pop up. Stop and get them....$4.00 for a dozen. Then squeeze lime juice and chili powder on....YUM!
And on another note.....Al went to the Dr. yesterday and is back to work today. He's on a 20lb weight limit, and had to go buy some new clothes, but other than that he's good to go. He has another appt. in 4 weeks to see if the nerve is coming back in his leg.