LOTS of miles today: 718 miles - from Nashville to Manhattan, KS, travelling thru Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas. We pulled out one of the "books on CD" we'd bot from a clearance rack and listened to a romance/murder mystery as we drove along. It really helps the miles slide by. In addition, our Sprint AirCard has been just *wonderful* - letting us check our email, make hotel reservations (and change them - twice) - and check this blog - all while driving across America at 70 MPH. We've had a moment or two when the AirCard couldn't connect, but it has really done its job and kept us connected.
We saw miles of soybeans - ripe and actually *gleaming* in the sun. Just beautiful gold.
Our Garmin GPS unit Leila REALLY showed her mettle, too. I got nervous as she lead us thru St Louis: the signs all said "I70 this way" - and she told us to go a different way. As it was, we had a great view of the Arch
- and popped out right on I70 - missing some of the traffic of St Louis. Also, we just kept putting in different destinations as the day went along - changing how far we thought we'd get - and she just re-calculated. When we set out to find "Mama's 39th St Diner" in Kansas City, it got pretty hairy and I missed a couple of turns (near the WWII Memorial). Leila was just *great* - instantly recalculating and getting us where we intended to have dinner - only to find that they were on "Winter Hours" and CLOSED! at 3:30PM. Sooo... we just told Leila to aim us for Manhattan, KS and she unwound us from KC and onto I70 West again. She was really *great* - and that softened the disappointment of not getting to try another of the "Diner's, Drive-in's and Dives".
I *did* have to contend all day with "Wii-arm": my whole right arm was SORE from playing "Wii" - 2 nights ago. That thing really does give you a work-out -particularly the Tennis - particularly when you're manic about winning (blush).
We did have another major victory of the day, too: I looked for one of my boyhood homes - outside of Wentzville, MO - and we *found* it. I had lived at "Martel Ridge" - which was just a 2-street subdivision. I figured it would have been turned into a Wal-Mart and I'd never even know where it was supposed to be - but *there it was*! 45 years after I lived there, the whole subdivision was right there and mostly just like I remembered. We pulled up in front of the house I'd lived in - and the *current* residents pulled up right behind me - so we got out and talked - and they've been there for the whole 4 decades since I left - and we got to catch up on some of the neighbors. I only lived there for a year-and-a-half, but I was only 8, so they were great years. It was SO good to see that it was all right there! Here's where I lived during the days of the Beatles:
Great day, lots of miles, wound up getting further than we thought we could - and even got to talk to my sister-in-law for a while before we fell into bed. Great stuff!
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