day 3: PART 2: Illinois smells like dirt

so after leaving Lake Michigan it was back to interstate driving (boring, monotonous, speeding). by this point, needless to say i was feeling a little bit squirrelly. so i had to get creative and keep myself amused and awake for the rest of the day. more on that in a hot minute. anyway, after indiana i was hoping for a change of scenery, but alas, illinois is flat as shit as well. take a peek... woo hoo, fresh plowed fields and an occasional silo just to keep things exciting.

illinois smells like dirt. warm, moist, rich earthen stink filled the entire car. don't get me wrong, it was a pretty good stink considering the alternatives. it seemed they had just plowed every field in the state. after a little while i noticed my windshield was remaining very clean and devoid of bugs... which got me thinking there probably aren't any bugs left after all the pesticides, fungicides, herbicides they use on the fields. which got me thinking 'yuck'. it's funny how poorly we treat the world that keeps us alive, how unabashedly we pollute life on so many levels simultaneously. funny to be having these thoughts as you smash the pedal down in your car, driving upwards of 700 miles a day, spewing out god knows how much shit in your wake. anything else less contradicting wouldn't be american would it? we're idiots.... well most of us...


then i saw this guy and i realized there were exceptions to every rule. go ahead, click on that bitch, look at the full-screen size. do it. this guy looks around at all the neighboring farms growing soy beans, corn, wheat, etc. and thinks 'screw these assholes, i want a real cash crop' so after a few late nights in the barn and a couple of hours leafing through 'farming for idiots' billybob had it! fuck soy beans, he was just going to grow school buses insead.
oh yeah, check that shit out. that's right: school buses, the hottest new cash crop in the bread-basket. tell the federal government to take their subsidies and shove them up their ass. you don't need em dog, you got it all figured out.




i couldn't help but think Bob Ross would love these happy, puffy little clouds.

i drove into St. Louis right after crossing into Missouri. i was going to stop and check out the gateway arch and whatnot, but it was 88 out. way too hot for concrete, tourists, elevators.
these pics from the car are as much as you get.
















onward and upward! farther up and farther in!