The First Annual Nova List Gathering
The Journey to St. Louis
Part 2
(click on any image to see a larger version)

Okay, so I'm in Iowa, approaching Des Moines. Which way to go?
 Well, St. Louis via Kansas City is all Interstate, but it's an additional 110+ miles.  No thanks, I'll go east to Iowa City, then south.  I-80 East it is.
I had to do something to break up the monotony of the straight, 70 mph crusing, so I did:
Speeding is fun!  Taking pictures while running 100 mph is exciting, too, if not terribly safe.  Yeah, I know the speedo reads 111 mph, but since I yanked my 2.73 rear gears and replaced them with 3.70s and mounted up 28" tall tires, my speedo reads 15% high. I'm actually going about 97-98 mph.  It was still fun.  I couple hours later I did hit about 115 actual when I was crusing with this Probe GT near Iowa City, but I didn't get a picture of that.  :-(

Okay, so Iowa east of Des Moines isn't all that boring.  It ain't the Rocky Mountains, but it beats flat farmland.
 

Keokuk, Iowa is a town where Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois meet up, with the Mississippi River flowing between.  I didn't need to cross over to Illinois, but I was so close, what the hell?

There's quite a dam system and power plant setup across the river between Iowa and Illinois.  It looks to be still functional, too.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Click on the pic to see it in more detail (as with any other pictures on these pages). It shows the plant on the left, and the big dam all the way from the plant to the Illinois side of the river.  There's a better name for the dam, I think, but I can't think of it.
Here's a better shot of the plant (that's a railroad bridge in the foreground):
And the dam-thing (with the railroad bridge in the foreground again):

Coming back across the river and into Paradise...
Great.

Well, that's about it for the Iowa leg of the Journey.  I finally made it to Missouri!

Check out the Missouri leg of the trip on the Next Page

Gathering Links...
The Trip to St. Louis:   Page 1   Page 2   Page 3
Friday Night in St. Louis:   Page 1
Saturday:   Page 1   Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5
Sunday:   Page 1   Page 2
The Trip Home from St. Louis:   Page 1   Page 2

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