October 12, 2008: Visit to the University of Northern Iowa . . .
Read MoreMy wife and I embarked on a day trip north to the University of Northern Iowa today to check the place out. UNI is around 5 hours from from Columbia via US Route 63. The plan was to leave our house early in the morning, spend the afternoon exploring UNI and Cedar Falls, and get back to Columbia before midnight. We're road trip pros at this point. So a 5-hour trip shouldn't be a problem.
US Route 63 passes within 1 mile of our house in Columbia. We hit the road and headed directly north into the rural areas of northern Missouri. Population density seemed to disappear altogether once we crossed into Iowa. Just after we passed Interstate 80 outside of Malcom, Iowa, traffic came to a standstill. Turns out we had to wait for a train stopped at a series of silos. But once the train cars were filled with whatever was being dispensed, we were on our way once again.We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out UNI and Cedar Falls before heading back to Columbia. But instead of following US Route 63, we decided to follow Interstate 380 to Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. US Route 218 arrived south of Iowa City which eventually lead us to the very familiar US Route 61 near the Missouri border. We passed by Hannibal and found US Route 54 near Bowling Green, Missouri and headed west toward Mexico.