Indiana wind farm

Very near the Illinois border I suddenly noticed off in the distance these huge wind turbines turning off in the distance turning in the wind. Just prior I had to slow down to allow a truck hauling some huge piece of equipment to back into a long drive way. From a distance the big piece of equipment looked almost missal-like and I wondered if there were any missal silos nearby. Of course, in retrospect it didn’t make any sense that a missal or part of a missal would be transported without some kind of governmental security escort.

The size of these three-bladed turbines was impressive, and I was perhaps a mile or so away from them. I decided to stop and take some pics, but I don’t think they came out very well. They certainly do not convey the massive size of these things.

You can barely see them. I wished I’d had a better camera. I could have driven closer but I’d already been in the car some 7 or 8 hours and I was only about half way there.

You can see them a little better here. I could certainly understand why this area was selected for a wind farm. The wind was strong and constant.

For this one I stood on the trunk of the car, hoping to get a better shot, but it didn’t really help much.

I got better shots of the road that I’d pulled off on to take the pics.

I’m not sure if this road was on my road map. It was unpaved, just a bed of crushed rock. And it was cool the way it appeared to disappear into the horizon. Something beautiful and foreboding about this image, don’t you think. Not sure if it is clear from this pic but the wind is really blowing the corn, which was perhaps waist high. I wondered what the view down this road would be like when the corn was at full height. Pretty cool I bet.

Here is another shot of the same road, closer to the ground POV.

And a view across the corn field.

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I’m back….

After so much time spent staring through the windshield of my trusty little Honda Civic, looking at the computer screen is a little strange. Also, it feels weird to type, as if my fingers want to fly off the keyboard.

Anyhoo…I was right about the alternate route that I took to Cedar Rapid, Iowa. It was interesting. Highway 24 that I took cut through mostly farmland and some very small towns. A few times, it was even a little eerie, when I couldn’t see any cars ahead of me or behind me nor any coming at me in the opposite direction lanes. I had this irrational fear that I’d somehow managed to drive right out of civilization. Hell, at some points I couldn’t even get any cell phone reception. If my car had broken down I might have had quite a hike to get some help. But fortunately that didn’t happen.

The trip took almost twice as long, close to thirteen hours. That is a long time to spend in a car, let me tell you, but I liked passing through the small towns. I noticed that no matter how small a town was or how less than economically advantaged it appeared there was often a sign directing you to the public library. If I’d had more time I would have liked to stop and check each one of them out. That would cool, traveling around the country visiting public libraries. Bet I could get a book out of that, or at least some interesting blog posts.

Additionally, I could have visited the Dan Quayle Museum, located in Huntington, Indiana. I imagined it greeted visitors with a giant elaborate display arguing that p-o-t-a-t-o-e while not common is ultimately a legitimate spelling for that particular root. I also could have visited the boyhood home of Ronald Regan in Tampico, Illinois.

But probably the most interesting sight was the wind farm I encountered in Indiana just before crossing into Illinois. Before I came upon it I had to slow down for a huge truck and trailer carrying this massive piece of equipment as it backed into the drive of some facility. From a distance, I couldn’t really tell what it was and wondered ominously if there was a nuclear missile silo in the area. It wasn’t until I got up on it that I realized that it was two very large propeller blades for a giant wind turbine, which I saw off in the distance some mile later. They were massive and I wasn’t even right up on them. I had to stop and try and take some pics but I don’t think they will come out very well. I’ll try to post them later. I could have driven south to get a better look at them but I was still only half-way to my destination and I’d already been in the car some 7 hours. Even so it was pretty damn cool. And a good place for these turbines too. The wind seem constant and strong.