Travel Observations - Day 3

From the road to Cedar Rapids, Iowa...

• Nebraska looks surprisingly similar from one end of the state to the other. I spent about an hour and a half reading, looking up from my book about every 15 minutes or so. It really didn't matter when, because it was usually some version of corn fields.
• Cue Eric to make a joke about this.
  
• Apparently, the Conoco in North Platte is trying all things to get some extra business. Picture to follow, but on the giant neon sign out front, they advertise that they have "the best looking cashiers". Didn't go in to find out if there was truth in advertising. I'm guessing it may be better that way.
  
• Football is HUGE in the Midwest. While this was not a surprise, it was a bit unusual to see 4 different sports writers picks for Friday night's High School football games. (All 10 of them).
• Iowa is much more scenic than I was expecting. I was essentially expecting more of Nebraska, and was pleasantly surprised to find miles and miles of rolling hills, and generally more people settled along the highway.
• Iowa also has two versions of a highway rest area: A standard rest area, and a "modern" rest area. The key differences: "Modern" rest areas have new amenities such as restrooms, a visitor information kiosk, and Wi-Fi. Standard rest areas are pretty much just a larger shoulder to pull off and stop the car in. There are no bathrooms, or really anything for that matter.
  
• Cedar Rapids seems to be a very nice city. The only thing that is a bit confusing is that, while they follow a standard grid plan for laying out their downtown streets, they use numbered streets in both directions. That's correct, this accurately shows the intersection of 1st st., and 1st ave. Strange.

Tomorrow is the last day of driving (thankfully), and we will be in Michigan by the end of the day.