Tuesday April 1, 1997 Springfield
Illinois – still sunny and warm
We got off
fairly early this morning after another continental breakfast which was
included in the room rate. That consisted of cereal and toast (we had a couple
of jars of Vegemite with us) plus juice, coffee and doughnuts. It made a bit of
a change from the American breakfasts which we have, as ever, enjoyed but
which we need a break from.
Rab wanted
to get some material from a Wal-Mart. She had seen it miles and days ago; couldn’t
make up her mind; decided too late that it would have been a good idea;
couldn’t find it again. (This scenario has been repeated many times over the
years – ‘Buy it now’” I say. But when is a husband’s advice accepted?) Anyhow,
we finally found some in a Wal-Mart
somewhere along the road, so that made her happy – and increased the distance
between stops.
Today’s trip
went well, although we stuck to the main Interstate Highway so we didn’t see as
much of the countryside as we had on previous days. We were still in hilly,
wooded area during the morning but the land flattened out as the day went by.
We got to St Louis
at about 2.30 pm and decided not to stop there. We had planned to take a break
at the famous arch, but the signage wasn’t too good and before we knew where we
were, we had crossed the Mississippi again and
were in Illinois.
We had a
very good view of the Arch, which is certainly impressive. Illinois is very flat prairie land and is
not as interesting a the Ozarks, so keeping to the Interstate was the way to go
as we could keep up a good average speed. We actually drove for part of the
way on the old Route 66, which was a bit of a kick!
Actually it
is quite weird how many bits of history, Americana etc pop us as we travel. On
the first day out of Houston we came across the Bonny & Clyde Museum (closed). We asked the local
Sheriff, who was parked nearby, if this was Bonny and Clyde
country. “Sure,” he said and went on to explain they had been shot in a little
town about 8 miles away, where there was a plaque recording the event. We tried
to find the place but couldn’t – part of our problem being that we had some
difficulty in following what the law man was saying. At Hot Springs we found that, not only had Jesse
James and his gang operated in the area, but Bill Clinton had been brought up
there! And so it goes. Weird stuff a lot of it. Abe Lincoln’s homestead was not far from where we are tonight.
And talking
of where we are tonight, we are staying at a Holiday Inn, mainly because we
couldn’t find the Quality Inn we were aiming for, This is a sort of Resort
Hotel with an enormous “Holidome” in its centre where people of all ages (but
mainly kids) were frolicking around – playing shuffleboard, ping pong,
miniature golf and swimming. All this in an area surrounded by rooms and a
mezzanine floor for observation. It seemed really odd to us to see all these
people in their swimming costumes when we went to dinner – a sort of surrealist
scene. I guess it must be great for them in winter.
And talking
of winter, the weather took a turn for the worse in a number of areas. In the
North East last night it snowed heavily. Boston
got about two foot and the airport was closed. But parts of New York State
got nearly three foot. Earlier in the week seven tornadoes touched down in Tennessee just a State
away from us in the West. We have, by chance steered a course between high
and low pressure zones and it has been sunny all the way. There was a cold wind
on Saturday as we drove through the mountains but we only felt that when we got
out of the car. The forecast is fine for the next few days, so the cold weather
clothes we brought probably will not be used after all.
I managed to get through to Matt by phone
tonight. Poor bloke has been very concerned about me, despite (or perhaps
because of) my fax from Houston.
This was compounded by a dream Dani had which had me changing into an elephant
surrounded by white birds – apparently a sign of death. I hope I was able to
put his mind to rest.
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