Neither Peter nor I have ever been in Nebraska. I really enjoyed western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, up to Omaha. The landscape was very tall hills, all covered with cultivated farm fields of corn and soybeans. They even needed to do some terracing. Massachusetts has similar hilly terrain, but it is all covered with trees. If you tried to cultivate one of Massachusetts' hillsides, all you'd get would be rocks. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen a single rock wall here in Iowa. But the vista is so wide open, you can see the extremely straight roads going up and down the hills in front of you, all the way to the horizon.
After Omaha, Nebraska landscape flattens out. So all you see is cornfields, everywhere, and extremely few trees. In Iowa, you could see trees, clustered around the farm houses and barn complexes, dotting the landscape. In flat Nebraska, you don't see trees, and you don't see farmhouses, just barns, periodically. Also, even with the very strong breeze (I needed to slow down to 60mph just to fight the steering wheel), there were hardly any wind turbines. Iowa had quite a few wind turbine farms along the route. I am still AMAZED at how much corn we grow in the US each year. We have driven 1000 miles across northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and now Nebraska, and it has been non-stop HUGE cornfields. And none of it is sweet corn.
Our current campsite "Prairie Oasis" is right off I-80, but indeed looks like an oasis. It is completely surrounded by cornfields, but has a pond, and large trees dotting the campgrounds, giving nice shade. And, the shade is really needed, as the temperature was mid-90's and the sun was scorching. Fortunately, the wind helps a lot. Also, as Lou would say, "it is a dry heat". As Evie would say, "an oven is still hot". Again, thank goodness for our air conditioned RV.
It seems that after a day of traveling, we tend to want to just set up the RV and hang out. We walked over to the pond and sat in the porch swings, in the shade, enjoying the breeze.
Prairie Oasis campground photos:
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