Commentary

Location, Davenport, IA

I want to add some comments that really belong in yesterday’s blog. When we drove south from Dorchester we drove 2 lane country roads to Mauston, WI and then to Cazenovia. South of Necedah they are building a huge ethanol plant. This is one of a possible three new plants for this area.

Anyone who drove through farm country this summer is certainly aware of how much corn was planted this spring. Corn is the pre-dominate crop his year. A radio program we heard earlier in our trip reported that US farmers planted 14 million more acres of corn this year than last year. All are trying to get on the government dole for the new ethanol push which is supposed to help with our oil imports.

Environmentalists are all ready complaining about the effects of planting more corn on the pollution problems with our rivers. All that extra fertilizer flows into streams which eventually flow to the ocean. It is a real not an imagined problem which no one else appears to be addressing. As usual, people will jump on the latest hot money making scheme even if it hurts the country as a whole.

End of political statement.

We had a little problem this morning while trying to dump our holding tanks. The kitchen sink grey water dump valve wouldn’t open. Of course the tank is full. I cut a hole in the belly covering under the trailer to see if I could get to the valve. I can see the valve but I think the slide part disconnected from the handle so it won’t open. I tried to get the trailer into an RV dealer when we arrived in Davenport but all are booked for weeks to come. I did buy a new valve this afternoon and hope to install it while in Greenville, TX in a few days. In the meantime, we will do the dishes in a dishpan and dump the water into the bathroom sink. More on this later in the week.

It is amazing how much the trees have changed in the last 2 weeks. We thought the early fall colors were due to the lack of rain in northern Wisconsin but found that trees are changing colors all the way south. This tree was in Lime Ridge in southern Wisconsin



We drove through southern Wisconsin to Dubuque, IA then south on Hwy 61 to Davenport. It was only about 132 miles total. We are staying at Interstate RV Park north of Davenport off of I-80. The country is all farming with rolling hills. Tomorrow we will travel the interstate as we have almost 300 miles to do.