Day 6 Lacross, WI to Sioux City, Iowa

6/27/13
Distance traveled 370 miles.

Drove nearly straight across the entire state of Minnesota but instead turned south in order to go to Sioux City, Iowa... Funny thing is that I really meant to got to Sioux Falls but when I asked a man (Larry Potter) how much further to Sioux City he told me and had me follow him some of the way... Whoops I said Sioux City not Sioux Falls (Potato Patato) It was an extra adventure.... & an extra state I got to explore...

States I've been through- NH, MA, NY, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, IA

After crossing the Mississippi River I entered some hilly, heavly wooded areas along the river and for about 30 minutes on I-90... It didn't take long though for the terrain to completely flatten out and I entered mostly flat farmland... At this point the winds were unbelievable.. I had to lean my bike just to go straight and then a gust of wind would come and I would have to lean even more in one direction... then the gust would pass and I would have to lean my bike the other way to stop from getting out of my lane... I couldn't rest my hands by taking them off the handlebars at all.. too sketchy!!! 

After experiencing the wind I can see why there are wind turbines all over the place... 

I noticed while driving that there seemed to be a lot of brown, unplanted farmland where you could see the old stalks (stems) of corn plants from last years crops. I was wondering why these hadn't got planted with new corn plants this year??? Later on I did get the answer to my question from a man I met named Larry Potter who owns a truck stop out in western Minnesota.

Below is a short slightly edited clip showing some of the brown, unplanted cropland. Larry explained that it had rained nearly the entire month of may so the ground was so wet that they couldn't plant and by the time things dried out it was too late to plant corn.. Plus the ground consists of so much clay that when it dries up the soil becomes rock hard and the seeds cant sprout through it.

The rest of the drive consisted of very lightly rolling terrain (mostly flat) farmland either corn or grasses. Luckily the speed limit through much of Wisconsin and all of Minnesota on I-90 was 75mph and the flow of traffic was 85mph..Just trying to get through this state and on to more exciting terrain...

 Eventually I arrived in Sioux City... Once again at night fall...