Day 2 – July 7: I Escaped Chicago!

First, thanks to Trisha and John for allowing me to stay at their place last night! Since we don’t get to see them much, it is always nice to stop by and visit.

I was on the road this morning by 5:40 a.m. and the traffic was really good the whole way around Chicago. 70 minutes after leaving, I had already done the loop around the west and south sides of Chicago and was heading south on I65 towards Indianapolis and Columbus. I took the freeway the entire way which was not very exciting but there just isn’t much to see in this area. At least it was uneventfully which is always a good thing.

I have a budget saving idea for the Chicago area. Save the money it costs to put up speed limit signs - nobody obeys them anyway! Doing 70 – 75 in a 55mph zone is nothing.

I can provide a crop report. Most of the fields look very nice from the freeway – looks like another bumper crop. The corn in Indiana already has tassels! In Minnesota, the saying is the “corn should be knee high by the 4^th of July”. I guess being that much farther south makes a big difference in the timing of the crops. However, there were some areas near Lafayette and Columbus that suffered drowning from the heavy rains they had earlier in the year.

And now for the milk report. I stopped at Fair Oaks Farms which is a large dairy operation in Indiana. Unfortunately, the tours did not start until 9:00 which was too late for me. I did pick up a brochure that talks about their operation and here are some of the facts:

• Approximately 30,000 dairy cows on 10 sites
• Cows are milked 3 times per day
• An average of 80 – 100 calves are born per day.
• After 80 days, the female calves are shipped to growers and then returned after 2 years to become milk cows.
• The bull calves are sold.
• Approximately 19,000 acres are used to grow silage corn and alfalfa hay
• Each cow produces about 75 pounds (135 cups) of milk per day

As long as we are talking about farming, let’s talk wind farm! North of Lafayette, I saw the most wind turbines I have ever seen in one area. There were rows and rows for miles and miles in every direction. Some of the towers where still being put up. Of the towers that were up, only about 10% were actually turning. I am assuming some of them are not fully operational yet.

And now for a weather report: No rain so far and the temperature has been in the low 90’s both afternoons which makes it a little toasty! Looks like more of the same for tomorrow.

I have meetings this afternoon for work and also tomorrow. These meetings got arranged on short notice last week since I was coming in this basic direction anyway for my trip. It means I had to leave home 2 days earlier than planned but hopefully they will be productive and save me a trip back later. After the meeting tomorrow, I will be heading east towards Cincinnati Ohio. I found some good roads between there and Morgantown WV where my motorcycle safety class is being held on Saturday and Sunday.