Our slow westward journey continues.

This is usually Winston’s sleeping spot in any hotel – right at the door to prevent anyone from leaving without his knowledge (and accompaniment).

Overhead view of the car with tent and some other camping gear stacked on top. I think we’ll get a chance to use them in a couple more days..

Sunset coming through the windows of an Italian restaurant in Evanston, Illinois. We spent two nights here so I could do some work at my offices in a nearby Chicago suburb.

Cubicle Hell at my Chicago office. These spots are almost all empty now.. the company is 1/2 the size it was 15 years ago and the Chicago office has lost more people than most. Covid was the final blow.. people still come to the office, but only 1 day of the week. This is probably going to change to 0 pretty soon.

At the beach on Lake Michigan, Chicago.

Getting ready to do a hike. We try to find two locations on each travel day to stop and properly stretch our legs, let Winston do his thing and take some photos.

The top of Ferry Bluff, Wisconsin. Ferry Bluff gets its name from Civil War days, when a ferry at the base of the bluff helped farmers and their animals cross the wide Wisconsin River. During the Civil War, a ferryboat landing was located at Honey Creek and it shuttled people and goods across. The path to the top is only open for 6 months of the year – in the Fall and Winter the place is closed to protect Bald Eagle nests – it’s one of only three winter concentrations of bald eagles in the midwest.

Panorama view from Pike’s Peak park in Iowa 500 feet over the Mississippi River. Explorer Zebulon Pike surveyed the area in 1805, identifying it as a potential military post location — before his famous expedition to the Colorado peak that now bears his name.

150 years before Zeb, Father Marquette and Louis Joliet looked out on the bluffs of the western shore a few miles below .. they were the first white men who ever saw Iowa. The park also contains 63 Indian burial grounds, so there may have been some folks here prior to Marquette..

A walk in the woods to find a waterfall down the hill.

We have had gorgeous weather for a solid week, but finally hit Iowa thunderstorms yesterday afternoon. We found a place to stop for the night and ate in from our portable cooler and bags of eaties we have picked up along the way. I have work calls in the morning so we’ll get a late start, but it’s a planned short travel day. We will finish up somewhere in South Dakota this evening, inshallah.