It's time to drive again. I think I got on the road around 8:20 with my first planned stop to be Rockford Illinois. Rockford is where my friend Daniel from college grew up, and I also helped design his mom's bakery's initial website! She's moved on from that initial design since then but I was able to score a free cookie when I went to say hi at Quixotic Bakery's booth at the local farmer's market!
After that, the next stop was Davenport Iowa. I have absolutely no connection or reason to visit Davenport EXCEPT! It's right on the Mississippi river and I'd get there around noon to find some lunch. So, I put the waterfront park into my GPS and said goodbye to Illinois.
I should have been more specific with my park directions in Davenport though, because I was initially led to a little skatepark on the wrong side of a chain-link fence from the Mississippi river. I debated climbing it, but after coming all this way I thought I might as well see if the park I could see on the other side was accessible my car. I certainly saw a lot of cars over there, and people seemed to be hitting things into the air. I couldn't quite make out what but I kept seeing balls flying over the roofs of cars.
Turns out there was a volleyball competition going on! I couldn't quite figure out what competition, but it had over 20 nets set up and countless tents around the outside for people to get out of the 94 degree heat in between games. There also happened to be a BBQ food truck nearby that I hit up for lunch and took with me to find a bench along the water.
The Mississippi is massive! It felt more like I was looking at a lake considering how slow the current was but nonetheless a fantastic stop and some good pulled pork! It's unfortunate that my next stop was a restaurant and only 2 hours away.
Welcome to "The Machine Shed" which I definitely thought would be some edgy tech-y robot kind of place. Apparently in this part of the country though the "machines" are tractors. And the shed is a barn. The property surrounding the place was dotted with all these old John Deers and the inside decor included everything from slideshows of tractors to tractor pictures and country music about tractors. It was a lot to take in. Luckily, the food was quite good! And while I wasn't brave enough to order the chicken liver...the fried chicken couldn't have been far behind.
That brings us to right now! Downtown Omaha in one giant room! I needed a minute to sit down before exploring but from what I saw outside, Omaha might surprise me!
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