Driving through America’s Heartland, I noticed something:  no matter how many hours I drove, I felt like giant screens along side of me kept playing the same scenery film loop.

 There are nearly 1400 miles between the western Nebraska border and my parents’ town in Ohio.  Omaha, 475 miles in, is the first “real” city.  Indianapolis is larger.  Columbus is Ohio’s largest city, and Interstate 70 wraps around it.  Finally, a familiar place where I knew the exit names and where the off ramps led.
 

Between these distractions, however, the surroundings were more “neutral,” consisting of the occasional wind mills, farm buildings, cows and lots and lots of corn. And corn, and some soybeans, and more and more corn.  This is where winter storms close the Interstate, and my mind drifted to listing the emergency items I keep in my car storage areas. Oddly, these states also have similar license plates--light blue on white—mind-numbing.

These photos were taken, one each, along my sleepy drive through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  Admittedly, this is not my best work (at 90 degrees and 60 mph,) but it does look like there’s going to be a good corn crop this year…