For months I have wanted to drive out to a wind farm that is about a 60 mile drive west from us. We had nothing else planned for today so we thought why not. We got up and left before 9 AM. We thought about stopping at McDonalds for an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, but then we thought it would be fun to find a greasy spoon along the way. About halfway there we saw a nice little place in Hinkley, IL. I had a Denver omelet and Sheri had coffee, two eggs and hash browns. It was a nice place. There was a woman sitting right in front of me that looked a little like Shania Twain.

The official name of the wind farm is Mendota Hills Wind Farm. It has 63 wind turbines and has a capacity of 50.4 megawatts, which is enough to power 15,000 homes per year. The wind farm is spread over the property of 39 farmers. They receive between $3,000 and $5,000 for each turbine on their property per year. The company that manufactured the turbines as well as owns this wind farm is a Spanish company called Gamesa. The turbine hub is 213 feet above the ground. The rotor has a 171' diameter.

This is a link to a map showing where we were.

I took about 10 minutes of video and have already uploaded it to Google Video, but I can not link to it until after it has been verified by someone that it is not obscene. That might take a day or two. I will post the link as soon as I hear that it has been approved. Until then here are a few of the pictures we took.









On the way home we saw a sign for a turkey farm that said they sold things retail. It was only about a mile off our route so we thought we would check it out. They were closed today, but I think I want to go back and get a fresh turkey. The place is called HoKa Turkey Farms.

We also at the Chicago Premium Outlet store just for something to do. We had only been there on the opening weekend a year or two ago.

We were not in the mood to buy anything. We just wanted to look around for some ideas. It has an open air setup so it is was too cold to spend too much time going from store to store. I didn't think most of the stores really had anything close to a bargain except for one. The Brooks Brothers store had really nice stuff and very competitive prices. Sheri liked the woman's selection too. I think I will wait and see how most people dress at my new job, and if a change in wardrobe is required go back to Brooks Brothers to stock up a bit.