Road Trip

I completed a bit of a 'road trip' today. I was scheduled to be in Rock Falls for some case staffings. I had originally intended on traveling to Rock Falls last night, as it's a bit of a drive. But I decided that I wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I started early this morning. On the way up, I took I-39 up to Rt 52, about 10 miles north of Lasalle-Peru. This route shoots to the northwest through Mendota and Amboy. From there, I hit Rt 30 East and cruised in Rock Falls at 9:00am. This trip was exactly 2 1/2 hours. Actually, the trip was a bit longer than planned. The accessibility evaluation that I assumed was in the Rock Falls area was in fact 45 minutes northwest. Near as I can tell, we were about 15 minutes from Clinton, IA and about 30 minutes south of Galena. The only consolation to the trip was that it was an absolutely gorgeous drive, with hardly a cloud in the sky. And we passed through a number of quaint little towns with some gorgeous older homes.

On the return trip, I opted for an alternate route. I took Rt 40 straight south out of Rock Falls, and stayed on this road all the way to Peoria. It was about 70 miles of 2-lane driving. Luckily, I don't think I passed more than one car in the 70 miles, and I was cruising at 60mph most of the drive. About the only highlight of the return trip was a stop at the Casey's in Bradford to refill the gas tank and belly.