Hy-Vee, Jolly Green Giant, Farms and more Farms -- on our way to Chicago

Our two day layover in Adrian, Minnesota, was well worth it.  I am feeling 90% better now, we enjoy cool temps yesterday, and we got a few things done around the motor home, including my cleaning of the refrigerator, and Marcia helped me with the refrigerator, did some laundry, cleaned the wood cabinets, the floor, etc., etc.   

Today our plan was to stop at Wal-Mart in Worthington, about 20 miles east...that was until we saw a Hy-Vee commercial last night on television.  Not knowing that Hy-Vee was in Minnesota, I did a search and found that there was a Hy-Vee nearly next door to Walmart...so we decided that was our stop in Worthington.

Hy-Vee is my brother Bob's favorite breakfast place...well, at least in Independence, Missouri.  You see, at my mom and dad's 50th anniversary, they wanted to go to Hy-Vee for breakfast.  Bob did not know what Hy-Vee was, and I told him it was a breakfast place.  We pull into the parking lot and he goes, "It's a Grocery Store!  We are having breakfast in a Grocery Store??"  Yep, Hy-Vee is a Grocery Store, and the newer ones have a nice breakfast, lunch, dinner area that "older people" like to gather.  Mom and Dad had many friends that they would see while they had breakfast at Hy-Vee in the Independence area....I am sure they miss it now that they live in the Sacramento area.

Above you can see that I was able to park along the side of the parking lot...and below you can see that this are was a "hit" with Skruffy and Bubba....a nice grassy area.

After getting our groceries, we hit I-90 and drove for another 200 miles or so to a nice rest area.  Along the way we saw....

Soybean fields....

 ...Corn fields....well, cut corn fields sometimes...

....and Wind Farms, many Wind Farms.....and the highlight of the drive.....

The Jolly Green Giant!

Other than that we saw a few towns, and many farm homes, some of which are below.

I found it interesting that nearly every clump of trees had an older home and barn within it.  I figure that many of the homes don't have air conditioning, and the tree cover provides relief from the hot summer days.

I had selected the rest area before we left due to how it was laid out with the freeway.

As you can see, it is protected from the Interstate by a bank of trees, and the trees just happened to be on a large mound, so freeway noise is just not going to be a problem.

We got the first parking slot, so that is real good.  Next to us a truck pulled in, but the guy is really nice, saw Skruffy and told me he had a dog that was 16 years old that looked just like her...but when he pet her he said, "But she is much softer than my dog..."  He said that he would not be running his engine after 9 pm or so.....perhaps we will have a quiet night.

 And the dogs love the huge grass area....real thick grass....they would have stayed out there all night if I would have let them.

Above is the car parking behind us....this should be a good night.  If you ever need a rest area in this area, this is the spot to choose.