Wow, what a wonderful start to this new adventure! I drove straight west until I was close to my first stop - about 100 miles west of Chicago in Mendota, Illinios. Right in the heart of the midwest, corn and soybeans as far as you can see! Unfortunately they have had so much rain, most of the crop has yet to be taken off the wet fields.
I saw a huge farm and stopped and asked the owner if I might spend the night. He directed me to a spot of gravel drive and told me to make myself at home! Just how folks are here, everybody waves, and you get the feel you are in the real America. Not a lot of honda's and toyota's about, mainly pickup trucks - Fords, Chevvies, & Dodges.
These guys farm about 6,000 acres, everything is John Deere, except the stuff they fab on site them selves which is bigger than Deere will make for them! They were still workin at midnight and started again about 6 this morning. They are racing now, the soybeans will rot and even though it will cost a lot to run the corn through dryers, they want to get it picked before the snow hits. I sure hope these guys get lucky and make a buck this year.
At 8 this morning i pulled in to Midwest Amphicar to see Dave Derrer, better known in the hobby as " Dave the Wave". I brought my original spare Amphicar transmission and in a short time it was reduced to a pile of gears, shafts, springs, and many small parts. Dave worked all day and I left tonight with my trans all assembled with the new parts that it needed. I would highly recommend Dave to you. Not only is he a hellofa nice guy, he is honest and extremely knowledgable and talented with Amphicars!
Dave has a nice shop at his home surrounded by miles of corn. There are 100's of windmills to generate power placed in the corn through out the area. They have a real strange feel to me and when you are near them you notice the sound of the blades moving thru the air. They are so huge, that white dot at the bottom of the picture above is a pickup truck!
Looks like between using the wind for power and making soy bio-diesel, the midwest is doing its part for our future! Well, its been a great time here, but time to head south. Stay tuned!
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