Coast to coast: Page 4

Mississippi River in Davenport, IA

I left Cheyenne bright and early the next morning, stopping at a place that specialized in breakfast burritos. It was good, but nothing too special. Today's leg of the trip took me to Davenport, Iowa, which is right on the Mississippi River - pictured above. The route took me through the eastern part of Wyoming, all of Nebraska and most of Iowa. All I can say is these states have a lot of corn and cows - they're everywhere. And the land is pretty flat, which doesn't make for interesting driving.

Davenport, IA

Davenport seemed like a nice place, but there was definitely a mid-west feeling there. And the air was incredibly humid. There were a few casinos on the Mississippi, and one of them had this skybridge that went over the train tracks and into downtown. It was outfitted with LCD lighting, so the color was constantly changing - from reds to green, yellow and blue.

Rib festival in Davenport, IA

While in Davenport, I happened to come upon this Rib Festival. There were something like 12 rib vendors from local restaurants and nation-wide chains. All I can say is these people were really into their rib-eating. There was a Jimmy Buffett cover band playing on this bandstand. In order to get a beer at this event, I had to purchase a casino chip, take it to another booth and trade it for a beer. I thought that was kind of a crazy way to do things - it must be some technicality in the law. Oh yeah, the festival was located in a park right next to the Mississippi, it was very nice.

Trophies from Rib festival in Davenport, IA

Like I said, these people were really into their rib-eating. This booth had all its trophies on display - quite impressive, I must say. There were probably 1,000 people at this event, I think it was quite popular. I didn't see which vendor was crowned king, sorry.

Giant Praying Mantis in Davenport, IA

While walking down the stairs on the way back to my car from the skybridge, I saw the biggest praying mantis I've ever seen. It was sticking to the outside of the glass, climbing. It kept looking at me with those huge, alien eyes. I know there's no perspective in the picture, but its body has to be at least 8-inches long - nasty.

Landscape in Upper State, NY

The next day of travel took me through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, the corner of Pennsylvania and into New York a bit. The day of driving started out with more boring mid-west landscapes, but by mid-day it was starting to look like the east coast with lots of Deciduous trees around - and I started thinking 'I can't wait for the fall!' This picture was taken the next day in Upper State, New York. The air was so humid and the trees were so thick, it was really cool to see - quite a contrast from the dry air in Montana.

City center in Vergennes, VT

This day's travels would take me to Burlington, Vermont. This was also the day I got off freeways and toll roads, and took to the back country highways. This was a much better way to see the terrain. I was taken aback at how lush and beautiful the forests were. There were some trees that had huge spiderwebs that took up entire branches. I only saw them from the highway, and I didn't want to get any closer. I stopped for lunch in Vergenness, Vermont, and had a great falafel pita and a local IPA.

City center in Burlington, VT

After lunch I headed onward to Burlington. I didn't know much about the town, but it sounded pretty nice. When I got there, I found out it's totally a college town - and pretty big. There's about 40,000 people there. I walked around the downtown area and found this nice fountain. If you look closely at the photograph, you can see people protesting the war in the background - must be a cool place!

Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT

Burlington is located on Lake Champlain, which separtes Vermont from New York. I snuck behind the couple in this picture and snapped this shot. They never found out I took it - that's ok, right? I decided to stay in Burlington for the night because I was really tired and didn't feel like going the extra 1.5 hours to Montreal. Once again, rain was in the forecast, so I found another hotel to stay in.