The Holiday Inn Express just west of Erie, PA, might have the least comfortable sofa-bed mattresses possible. I can feel most of the springs, and I’m not quite sure why one end turns up like a spoiler. But it is larger than the air mattress and sleeping bag that has been my bed since Monday. Our room, too, is larger, and we have a jacuzzi that is the perfect partner of the sofa-bed.

Not too long after we left Black River Falls we saw a grain silo with a gigantic pumpkin on top. It had a painted buck-tooth face. After passing through lower Wisconsin we arrived in Henry’s orginal hometown state, Illinois. Traffic looked bad in Chicago, so we drove a 60 mile loop around the city that took us through some of the flattest terrain we’ve seen. Many of the farms had their own large windmills, and one boasted a large windfarm with about 30 mills. It covered enough area that it was impossible to photo, even with no trees or mountains blocking our view.

With Chicago behind us we resigned ourselves to blowing through Indiana. When you cross from Illinois to Indiana on I-80, you go over a large rock quarry so deep you cannot see the bottom and so wide you cannot see the end. And then there are tolls and truckers until the next state. In Ohio we stopped at a Kohl’s in Ohio to fix an underwear supply problem, then hurried along towards Cleveland. There we found one of the most extreme corners we’ve seen. I-90 takes an extreme right at the airport and then runs along the shoreline. The posted limit is 35, and the U-haul couldn’t handle much more. And there is not much left to report about what is, so far, the least interesting leg of the trip.

Tomorrow is our last day. We have about 550 miles to go.