Day 37: Knoxville, Iowa to South Bend, Indiana

We depart the Red Carpet Motel in Knoxville at 06:30 rolling east on Hwy 92. We take breakfast at the Copper Lantern in Sigourney (pictured) and fill up at BP with the cheapest gas so far - $2.78.9 - I tell the lady there that BP have had a bum rap. We move onto Washington, where a stop at the Goodwill store turns up some good pickings.
We cross the Mississippi at Murcatine and reach Rock Island. We follow signs for Rock Island Visitor Centre where a security guard assures us it is off limits to non-U.S. passport holders. Strange. We try to find a visitor office at Geneseo, signposted off the highway. A lady at the local library does not know where the office is to be found. Back on the highway we stop at a rest area and find the map the tourist information folk would not mail to non-U.S. residents when requested. We decide we can do without Illinois, pausing to get more gas at Joliet BP for $2.99 per gallon, and get the hammer down to the Indiana border, where the folk at their tourist office in Hammond are falling over backwards to help us. We take Hwy 20 to South Bend and check-in at the Quality Inn. Over 400 miles today and we may reach home tomorrow.