Day 1 - August 4

We got a late start, as usual! When we went to bed at 2:00 this morning, we thought we were 99% ready to go. But, there always seems to be a lot more stuff to finish up than you realize. Carol’s clients took longer than expected, which always happens. Then, when she got to the bank for a quick deposit of 4 checks, she discovered there were only 3 in her purse. She searched the car, then went back to her office. The missing check was right in the middle of the floor! So, back to the bank to finish up. Then, after some last minute packing, we were finally out the door by 5:00 p.m.

We were going to stop and see Doug, Mary, Susie and the girls in Columbia, but being 3 hours behind schedule, we decided we would try to see them on the way home. We drove across Missouri and stopped for gas in Warrenton, near St. Louis. We saw a little pizza place and went in for a coke, but the pizza looked so good that we ended up splitting a little one! As we went around St. Louis to the north on I-270, I lost the faith and thought perhaps we had gone too far north. We stopped at a QuikTrip and while Carol was getting directions I looked at the GPSr and saw we were on the right path. Thank you, Mr. Geomachine, because the QuikTrip guy had given Carol awful directions, which would have taken us way back and through downtown St. Louis.

We stopped for the night at a Howard Johnson Motor Inn in Effingham, Illinois.It wasn’t our first choice, but it was late (1:30 a.m.) and several other motels we checked were full. I thought the room had a funky smell to it, but Carol said it was because the a.c. wasn’t on. I’m sure that wasn’t the only reason for the odor. One of the blankets (which Carol swears she will complain about) had holes in it and lots of stains. It wasn’t nice!