That's it! We packed up our tent for the last time last night. D made arrangements to sleep in a kabin at the next stop in Rock Island, Illinois, because the forecast was for a thunderstorm that evening.
BTW, for the kids, that's a coal-fired power plant just outside Grand Island, Nebraska. |
In case you haven't noticed, I posted a lot of pictures of wind farms along our journey. So we were excited to see the fan blades being transported by trucks. They were huge!
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After a few hours, we neared the eastern end of Nebraska, in Omaha, its biggest city. But we did not stop there.
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Our main stop today is the town of Ames in Iowa.
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Ames is located some 25 miles north of the capital, Des Moines.
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This renewable energy source seem to have gotten ground in the western part of the country.
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Maneuvering the outskirts of Des Moines towards Ames.
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This is where we exited.
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Welcome to Iowa State University, Kaknun's alma mater.
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She was there in the 1980s doing her first degree in the College of Design.
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So, we needed to find out where exactly this College of Design is. Lucky there was a visitor booth just outside town.
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There seemed to be a sports festival going on at the time.
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I believe that water tower is a significant landmark for ISU. Kaknun should remember that.
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That's the College building. There was a lot of construction going on. The university probably got lots of allocation from the state to upgrade the facilities over the summer.
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A new wing, King Pavilion, is being constructed for the College.
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I hope this triggers pleasant memories for Kaknun.
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Farhan and D managed to get inside to get a better view of the college.
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But we could not spend more time there, as we had to rush to Rock Island, Illinois, to arrive before 9pm.
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Kaknun's ride home, probably, since she did not have a car.
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D asked Kaknun for the addresses of her apartments. Unfortunately, we couldn't match it to any of the building on Lincoln St, the main thoroughfare. Is that your apartment block, Kaknun?
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Or is it this one?
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We tried looking for it block after block, but after a while, we had to go. Sorry Kaknun. But as a last stop, we shopped for halal meat at this grocery store.
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Goodbye, Ames and ISU!
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We continued our journey towards Davenport, Iowa. It is one of the four cities in the area known as Quad Cities.
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That's the State Capitol in Des Moines from afar.
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And yet more cornfields.
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When we were near our destination, we can see the skies are already darkening.
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We arrived at Rock Island KOA just after 8pm, just before the severe thunderstorm arrived over us. Alhamdulillah, D made a good decision to book us into a kabin.
There were no pictures of the storm as we were huddled together in the kabin amidst the tornado warning siren, thunderclaps, lightning bolts and heavy rain. |
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Yes, Eli, the first photo of the block in brown brick is where I stayed after I moved out of Campus Avenue. After that I moved to Arbor Hills apt on S Hyland Ane where Ma came to visit me. Thanks for making the journey to Ames, Iowa. I wnt to go too! hugs! K Nun
????? · 2009-07-26: 19:18
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