We woke to more cold weather. In fact, the Scion had a heavy coating of ice on the windshield. I took my usual walk around the Wal-Mart parking lot... found only one penny this morning. Finding money is sort of a challenge for us... and I have this theory about finding coins in Wal-Mart parking lots... I'll share that one of these days.
We get off to a late (for us) start... head west again around 8am. But we know that in about 50 miles we'll be in the Central Time Zone and leave Eastern Time behind. So.. looking at it that way, it's really only 7am.
Even I70 is foggy this morning... visibility is low.
I 70 is a straight shot across Indiana.
The trees continue to display their fall foliage...
But instead of rolling hills, this is more flatland... farming land.
The breadbasket of America....
We cross the Wabash River and head into Illinois.
This is our 2nd full day on the road and we're still listening to XM Radio. By now I realize that this program plays the same songs each day and I'm beginning to remember the words to many of them. Hmmmm..... I can't carry a tune in a bucket... never could... maybe when it's another "he done'er wrong" song it doesn't matter. I sing along with David Allan Coe when he does his "perfect" country/western song.... "I was drunk when my mom got out of prison" etc etc etc.
Bill is imperturbable...
He just calmly drives along...
Either he's a saint or he needs his hearing tested.
It's another cold day, but I shed the down jacket fairly early.
We've volunteered at quite a few refuges but never this one. However, Kim King-Wrenn, whom I worked for at Seviletta NWR in New Mexico transferred to Crab Orchard about 3 years ago.
We stop and visit with Kim...
Catch up on what's going on in her life and learn about Crab Orchard NWR.
It's time to move on... down I 57,
We see the sign for Cairo, but don't take the time to see the confluence of the rivers.
We know we'll soon be crossing the Mississippi...
And will be in Missouri...
Soon we change to I55, and keep driving south....
into...
By this time the landscape has really changed...
The trees aren't so colorful for one thing.
I think here there are more cottonwoods and pine trees.
We stop for the night shortly after driving into Arkansas... decide to spend the night in the Blytheville Wal-Mart parking lot.
There's no geocache here... darn!
We traveled a total of 348 miles today... that's a lot for us!
Two days on the road and we're about half way to our destination.
That's All For Today!
I like the narration of your travels, I have a long trip coming up in 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteOnce you get to Texas, then the real driving begins! ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to call me "darling," Darling. You never even called me by my name.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that's true with the online radio stations, too, that they start over again every day.
I have a thing with finding money too. My grandma always said: put it in your pocket and you will never run out of money. So, whenever I find a penny, dime or dollar.... And there are a lot on the ground. Just keep your eyes open.:))
ReplyDeleteSame thing: I couldn't ignore the road kills. At one time I was really tempted to make a list and sum it up at the end of our trip. I would have been several hundreds! Too bad, poor things.
I hate traveling in the fall when the deer road kills mount. When I was a kid, we used to see 13-striped gophers along roadsides all the time. It's been many years since I've seen one--I wonder why. I read once that the DNR uses road kill counts as an indication of animal population peaks and declines. Maybe you were traveling during a low population period. It seems like the severe drought might have caused a die-off.
ReplyDeleteToo many miles in a day for me, and I don't do Wal-Marts. I bought a sweatshirt at Crab Orchard last fall when I was stuck in the area with a broken fridge. :(
ReplyDeleteWhen i was 'on the road' i had a roadkill report 4 my Oregon 'peeps', they loved it!!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your story about singing along with the radio. When we were kids, we didn't have radio in the car but we always had music!! Love singing in the car but I don't do it anymore. Maybe I should!!
ReplyDeleteGlad to join you this way on the road trip, since these aren't places I have an interested in visiting in person!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to imagine frost on the windshield when we're still having breakfast outside and finding a shady table because it gets too hot in the sun!
Wave hello to my relatives in Arkansas for me.
ReplyDelete