We kicked off the inaugural road trip in our new conversion van (goes by the name of Morgan) in August 2022, when we rounded the cloverleaf entrance ramp of Interstate 80 just outside Chicagoland and headed west, into the fertile farmlands of central Illinois. The late summer air was thick and humid as we sped along this iconic transcontinental freeway. Hard to believe that the launch of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s travelers venturing out West had to rely on two-lane, full access roads that laced the countryside. Here we were, modern-day pioneers, breezing across the flat, glaciated Midwest with the cruise control set to 65MPH!

We crossed the Mississippi River to enter Iowa at Davenport. There is something evocative about passing endless cornfields marked proudly with the name and insignia of the seed company used by that farmer. "Sky above, corn below, peace within" is a saying you might hear around these parts. It was a bit of a shock to see how many of these rolling fields now feature wind farms, but that's a topic for another day.

Our stay in Iowa was brief--but we enjoyed camping on two hobby farms there  through the Harvest Hosts program, one a mixed-critter homestead, the other a sheep farm. Visiting farms and ranches would soon become a theme of our travels, as getting off the interstate and negotiating unpaved country roads to see where and how our food is produced is a lesson for the ages.