I-70 Cruisin'

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week we rolled east on Interstate 70, a little over 400 miles each day.  By Thursday evening we had journeyed from Salina, KS to Columbus, OH.  At a service area on the Kansas Turnpike I saw this militant recycling truck.

I-70 goes through several major cities, including Kansas City.

Crossing the Missouri River.

Missouri is kind of a relaxed state in some ways.  The liquor laws are among the most permissive in the nation; there's not even an open container restriction!  And it's full speed ahead on fireworks of all kinds.

Crossing the mighty Mississippi at St Louis, always a landmark on a cross country trip.

Illinois is usually a blue state, thanks to Chicago, which with its suburbs makes up at least half the population of the state.  But rural Illinois is in the Bible Belt big time, as this massive cross near Effingham reminds us.

I-70 also passes right through Indianapolis.  Here's Lucas Oil Field, home of the Colts.  Here, Andrew Luck will be trying to jumpstart Indy this fall.

I grew up in Oregon, where anti-billboard laws were passed a good 40 years ago.  There are no such laws in Indiana, as this shot shows; none in Missouri either.  I believe Oregon originated the smaller green signs at each freeway exit that show the logos of services at the exit, as a provision of the anti-billboard laws.  Now all state have these signs, but some have a ton of billboards too.

We passed Dayton, Ohio, home of Wright Patterson Air Force Base.  This HUGE transport plane was practicing circling, right overhead.