Off We Go Again

Months ago, when we started talking about another trip, we learned that Geoff's sister and her husband were headed west in the fall and so we planned meeting up with them and now we're headed out to catch them in Rapid City, South Dakota. We had originally talked about leaving on Sunday but when I realized that would be 4 days of 400 or more miles a day, we decided to leave on the Saturday instead.

John, Leslie, me, Geoff at the Badlands

One of the drawbacks to frequent trips is you run out of new routes to depart on so off we went on our old friend, I-95 to I-10 to I-75 through Atlanta, staying that first night past Atlanta at the Atlanta-Marietta Resort - 400 miles down. It took some old and winding roads to get to it but nice enough. We did discover we had driven off without any bringing any batteries when I found the clock had stopped but Geoff found one rolling around in the cabinet so time marched on!

Around noon the next day we stopped at a WalMart in Tennessee to pick up some batteries and stuff and ate at a New China buffet in the nearby strip mall. That was a nice change! Getting Geoff to stop for Chinese had previously been impossible! It may also not happen again so I enjoyed it while I had it. We stayed that night at the Clarksville RV Park in Tennessee, almost into Kentucky. A very nice park, if we come this way again will stay there! And 560 miles bites the dust!

Headed out the next morning going through Paducah, Kentucky. Saw signs for the National Quilt Museum ... anytime I see an ad or a sign for a quilt place I think about my cousin Cyndi who does quilt. Since I don't, we didn't stop! We had lunch at the Little Nashville truck stop and restaurant in Nashville, Illinois, just off I-64 and then hit a traffic slowdown west of St Louis on I-70.

About halfway between St Louis and Kansas City, we stayed at the Lazy Day Campground near Danville, Missouri, after only 350 miles this time. This is a really nice little campground, not only a nice place but also nice people. There were some super neat wood carvings - a dog totem pole and a wizard - but darned if I can find them anywhere now. I hate that! If I find them I'll come back and edit this to put them in!

After leaving Lazy Day we stopped to fuel up at a Pilot truck stop in Higginsville, Missouri. While there we picked up a couple of subs from the Subway that was part of the store, like many of the Pilot stops. I was thrilled because they had the Seafood Sunsation salad that many don't include on the menu. We got footlong subs to have some in a bit for lunch and the rest for dinner that night where ever we might be. I mention it particularly because the girl behind the counter was sooo nice and helpful!

Bugs, bugs, bugs ... not so much bothering us stopped but darn, I think our windshield was a magnet for them!

We finally got to the western end of Missouri and turned north towards Iowa on I-29. We crossed the border into Iowa about 2 P.M. Central time and began to get some idea of the flooding here. Like most Americans probably we had been aware there had been flooding in the Midwest earlier in the year. We were totally unaware that that included the area we were now in and that the very road we were on had been closed for weeks at a time. The whole flooding thing gets a blog of its own - Water, Water, Everywhere! - especially when we ran into more of it later.

It was getting late in the day and we were getting worried that the Onawa KOA listed at Exit 112 on I-29 might be closed or damaged by the flooding. Fortunately it was not as we had done 412 miles to get this far and we had a nice site near the shore of Blue Lake. Unfortunately it rained that night and we woke up to a leaky windshield and a puddle by the door. At least most of the bugs were off the windshield!