Day 13: Journey to the center of the solar system

Today I drove from Davenport, IA to O'fallon, IL. At the end of the day, my odometer reads 46,029 miles - meaning I've driven a total of 3,332 miles (plus about 80 miles on the back of a tow truck). Today's roadside stops were mostly focused on finding as many of the markers for a scale solar system in Peoria. I had a blast tracking them down (though I'm missing two, so I need to recruit some people to pick them up for me. Any volunteers?) In fact, it would have been fun to do as a part of a scavenger hunt. Or even if my whole cross country trip was a scavenger hunt. Anyone want to make one for me?

Starting off, I was going to Kewanee, IA to find a monument to them being the hog capital of the world. Though I don't know of any pig farms and I don't see much on the Internet, so I'm not sure what they actually do with hogs other than have a parade. Shouldn't "capitals of the world" be primarily involved in the item the are the capital of? Anyway, at least they have a statue and a sign... though I had to ask some firemen (after letting Hailey play with their dalmation) and even then, only the old guy knew what I was talking about.

Not sure why the pig is in a dog house, but it also looks like it could use a new coat of paint

And by luck, the first of my solar system stops was also in Kewanee, in a furniture store. As I got there I wondered if they'd be open since it was just after nine. But by luck, they opened at 9 am. Here's the first sign. On the bottom right, you can see the scale model of pluto on the left. That's how big it would be if the sun was as big as you'll see later.



The next planet stop was Mars. It was found in a toy store in Peoria. The ladies there said they thought the sign was in a corner of the store, and with a little hunting, I'd found it:



Then, a ways down the street was Mercury in a camera shop. They knew exactly where the sign was.

On the way out of the camera shop, I noticed a farmers market, and of course needed to stop. It wasn't really a local market - the food was all brokered, but I still got some plums and apricots (from California, of course).

Back searching or planets, Venus was in a printing shop. Very easy to find. Though my GPS started sending me down random streets rather than just taking the main road. Apparently it doesn't realize that when I go to an intermediate stopping point that I can turn around easily without needing to go around the block. Someone should fix that.

The scale model also has dwarf planets Ceres and Eris (in addition to Pluto). Eris is located in Western Illinois University, way too far off route so I didn't get that one, but Ceres was located in a Nature Center. The girl at the gift shop didn't know what I was talking about (she took me to the models they had for sale) but the head guy knew. Also, it turns out that he used to live in Wallingford (Seattle) and his wife wanted them to move back so she could attend Bastyr University! I encouraged him to do it. He also lived in Vermont and said he was familiar with Boston, so when I asked what one place there I should visit, he said the Children's Museum. Anyway, I got the picture and was back on the road.

Clearly, I was finding my planets out of order. I was doing it in the least driving possible, so up next was the sun. It's painted on the outside of the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences. Note that the building isn't actually big enough for the full sun. Makes it pretty clear how big the sun is relative to our planets. Kind of scary, actually.

Earth was next, and could be found inside a gas station. When I walked in and said I was looking for Earth, the response was "You're on Earth, honey!" Clearly, they've heard that request once or twice before :) Compare it's size to the sun.

Before the next planet, I took a side trip to see a small St Louis arch. It's at a car junk yard and to class it up, has a junker car on it:

Jupiter was next. It was on the campus of Bradley University. It actually turned out to be easy to find. I knew it was in a stairwell in Olin Hall. I was worried that I'd have to search for a while because I didn't want to leave Hailey tied up outside. It was too hot to leave her in the car if it wasn't going to be an in & out deal. But when we walked around the building, we found the sign through a window so she wasn't outside for long. There is no scale model for Jupiter; I wonder if it is too big for the sign, or if people knocked it off.

And here's a random picture; I just thought it was funny how close the Bradley University logo was to Bastyr's. I wonder if they used the same designer :)

Another break from planets took me to this statue. They call it the Uniroyal Girl. I had heard she was sporting a less revealing outfit, but I guess not. But the fun fact is that if she were a part of the solar system model, her measurments would be: 142,000 miles x 95,000 miles x 142,000 miles :)

Also, near that statue was a rapunzel scene at an old rope factory, but sadly the characters are gone (just the tower is left). I'm assuming they went away when the store closed. :(

Saturn was at a Kroger grocery store. The employees knew exactly where it was, but my GPS took me in the wrong direction. I eventually had to stop listening to it and actually think about where I was driving (ha! take that technology. This time, I knew better :)

On my way to Uranus, I stopped at an ice cream place that had this sad looking ice cream cone statue. And the ice cream was sad, too. Soft serve only (I still got some)... maybe I would have had a clue had I noticed that the store spelled it Ice c-r-e-m-e.

Uranus was my last planet of the day. I decided to skip Neptune because it was out of town in the wrong direction and I wasn't willing to add an extra 45-60 minutes to my driving. And finding Uranus also took me to the "World's Greatest Sundial". I don't know what determines world's greatest, but if the sign says so...

It is a pretty impressive sundial

And it has a "sun gun" (direct it at the sun and learn all sorts of fun info)

Here is Uranus; the sign is in back but nearly totally washed out by being in the sun.

From there, I just drove on. I skipped Lincoln and Springfield in the interest of time, though I expect to go back in the next week or so.

And lastly, here are my random thoughts for the day:

• In Peoria, there is a sign for a "Water Protection Area" where it says to notify if any spills. About 1/2 block later, the area ends. So am I good if I spill outside that zone? Seems really lame. Shouldn't all hazerdous spills be reported?
• I got to see vultures today. I didn't expect that, but it was odd to see them feasting on road kill.
• I forgot this in South Dakota, but the high school in Wall, SD has a sign congratulating their rodeo team. How country :)
• Maybe motorcycle helmets are only used on the west coast. On most of my trip, I see riders sans helmet. I know a lot of people do it, but it gives me shivers every time I see someone without a helmet.
• Even with all the farmland I've passed, I finally saw a tractor working out in a field. Sadly, it was "weeding" - with herbicides. It reminded me of the stock footage I see on the news whenever they talk about farming - it's always of a tractor spraying or fertilizing; since when did that become the "normal" picture of American farming?
• I passed a campground with the initials of KKC (I can't remember the exact name, but it was something like Kozy Kampers Campground). I wonder why it was cute to use K's for the first two words but not the last one?... oh, yeah, I get it now.

Anyway, that's today. And now I'm staying at my dad's place for a bit (unsure yet how long; I'll either fly to Boston from here to rent a place before continuing or else just drive on and figure it out when I get there). So the point is, I might go a few days between posts, but not to worry I'll still be looking for stuff. I still have to go back to Springfield and the world's largest ketchup bottle is only about 10 minutes away :)