The Trip West Days 3 & 4

Day 3 is now done. We covered 480 miles which brings our total so far to 1296 and have settled in at RV Express 66. But only after a "trip" to Walmart for some supplies. This is a neat little "stop-over" RV camping area located right off of Interstate 44 and adjacent to Rt 66. It is neat, clean, with all of the amenities, i.e: water, 30 amp elec service, free wi-fi, dump station, and a whole bunch of restaurants within walking distance. We took advantage of the Mexican Restaurant and had a nice meal while Molly stayed back at the Airstream, catching up on some sleep while guarding the place. Right after we pulled in, another couple from Ontario arrived and settled in to the spot right next to us. We got to talking and it seems they are on their way from Northern Ontario to Mesa, AZ to spend the winter - and get out of the cold. Hey. They are also traveling with a dog. Oh, and one other thing. We are now in a different time zone. And apparently weather zone too. We left Vermont it was 31. When we arrived in Marshfield, MO it was 72.

RV Express 66

So now back to day 3 travels. We got up bright and early left our campground before the sun came up. Temp here when we got up was 41.

Our early target was Indianapolis and we were about 40 miles from there. We passed through New Castle, IN and noted sign for Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. When we finally got to Indianapolis, we found that all the backed up eastbound traffic in Cleveland was now westbound traffic backed up in Indianapolis. Evidently a major accident(which we eventually saw involved a car carrier and several cars) at interstate intersection brought everything to a slowdown. 5 lanes just creeping along. For miles.

We had our CB radio on through this whole thing to see if we could pick up any info, but mostly had it on for the amusement. Truckers are a funny bunch some time. There was one guy who called himself Bob, on the radio that had a new "still in the box" Garmin 760 GPS and wanted to know if anyone else had one. He kept asking and asking and asking until some truckers "squelched" him out or outright told him to shut up. We finally got moving again right after the accident spot. At this point we were traveling on Interstate 70 and frequently experienced construction zones where slow down to 45 was mandatory. I have never driven on a road with so many tractor trailers. We were not in a rush, so cruising for the most part at 60 mph in zones that were posted for 65 and in some cases 70. Needless to say, we had a lot of rigs pass us. It seems like every time I looked in drivers side mirror, we were being passed by another rig. I was very surprised at how stable the Airstream was in all of this traffic. The only vehicles that gave us issues were ones with large, flat frontal areas - like tour bus'. And even then it wasn't bad, just noticeable.

One thing we saw as we were exiting Indianapolis, was the airport and FedEx National Hub right there at the airport. What an immense operation.

At 10:25 we entered Illinois.  Still traveling on I70, and noted a car coming up on us in the passing lane. The driver had his camera up and was taking a pic of our Airstream. Interesting.  At another point on this road, we came upon the remains of the easily recognizeable Werner tractor  and 53' trailer about a two hundred feet off the road. The tractor was jack-knifed and the trailer was on its side, split almost in half where it had been disected by a  tree. It's entire cargo of diesel engines laying on the ground. What a mess. It looked like it had happened a while ago. Probably still trying to figure out how to clean up the mess.

At about 1:00 pm we began approaching the vicinity of St Louis. Here we had to make a road change,   going from I70 to I55 to I44.  Along the way we got to see the Arch, Busch Stadium and a lot of the city proper. Pretty impressive.

Kind of hairy driving as it got quite tense with the road and lane shifts, impatient drivers, stupid drivers, and volume of traffic. But we made it. I44 for 291 miles.

Random ramblings from our stint on I44:
Noted a distinct change in the terrain when we passed from Indiana to Illinois to Missouri. Where Indiana  and Illinois had been FLAT farmland,  Missouri was hilly and slightly reminiscent of Vermont. Interstate was up and then down, up and then down. Slow vehicle lanes on hills became common, where they had been almost non existent in Indiana and Illinois.

Gas prices: Regular for $2.55

In vicinity of Eureka, MO saw sign for Vacuum Cleaner Museum.

About 60 miles from Springfield, MO, an older, small pickup(driven by a like described man) passed us, tooted his horn and waved. His license plates were Vermont plates. Unbelievable. There are 2 of us out here.

In Lebanon, MO we passed the Tracker Boat factory. Could not believe the number of boats in and around this place.

Day 4 is now done. We covered 280 miles bringing our total so far to 1564. 
Day 4 began from RV Express 66, about 20 miles east of Springfield, Mo in Marshfield, Mo. Our neighbors from Ontario were up early and on the road again right after 7:00. We hung around until 9:50. First stop was Camping World in Strafford, Mo. We programmed the address in our Rand McNally/Good Sams GPS and it took us right to the front door. Purpose of the trip was to pick up High Pressure water hose adapter, which we found for $15.00. Next stop was for gas - Love's station right down the road and less than 1/4 mile from I44 on ramp. With gas done, we were off to Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO. The Mother Ship. Once again our GPS took us right to the front door. We arrived at about 10:30.

The Mother Ship

Only Airstream there

To put it mildly, it was everything that I expected, and more. It was huge. The Alcoves with fish, animal, reptile displays was unbelievable. Imagine a fish tank with 2 live 5' long GAR's. That was just one example. You could take the entire Bass Pro Shops store in Hooksett, NH and fit it in the fishing department here. We didn't buy much here - I replaced a watch and Mary got some Cocoon clip on sun glasses.

Since it was getting close to lunch time, we decided to do lunch there. Not a bad decision. Food was good as well as the scenery. Check out the ceiling above our table:

After a nice lunch there we were back on the road. Time = 12:30. We had 270 miles to go to get to our next stop- which was going to be Chandler, OK and Oak Glen RV Park.

Tidbits from Day 4:
On the way in to Springfield, saw signs for Table Rock & Bull Shoals Lakes. Both are famous bass fishing destinations and the site of many tournaments.

At about 2:05 traveling in the vicinity of Carthage, MO, noted workers repairing a guard rail - east bound in the "hammer lane". They had traffic backed up for over 3 miles. We lucked out again.

2:15 we entered Oklahoma. Definite terrain change.

East of Tulsa noted signs for Grand Lake- sight of recent Bass Masters Classic.

At some point while driving I made a comment to Mary that with all of the thousands of semi's we had seen, we had not yet seen "me & Earl" with a load of Rhode Island Reds(chickens) stacked to 13'6".Well at 3:50, just east of Tulsa, we had a tractor trailer loaded to 13'6"  of chickens. We both burst our laughing. This whole thing was a reference to C. W. McCalls famous Wolf Creek Pass. You should have seen the chicken feathers flying in the wind.

Just before 5:00 we left I 44 and got on RT 66. The famous RT 66. Destination was Chandler, OK and Oak Glen RV Park. First a stop at Walmart(just a mile up the road) and then to check in. We had a nice spot. It was level, had 30 amp electricity and water. Piss poor WiFi however. In bed at 8:30.