Whew! Today was a hot one. We have been arriving at our campsites before 3 so far on this trip, but today we didn't get here until around 5:30. I knew it was going to be a long day, but I forgot that the more you drive in the afternoon without a/c, the hotter it gets. However, the hot afternoon was definitely worth our more excursion.
We started off today with some showers and oatmeal. The water temperature in my shower couldn't decide what it wanted to do, so that was annoying, but it's ok. We headed out of Casey, IL before 8am and Jo drove the first leg all the way to St. Louis, MO. We essentially had to cross the entire state. It was about a 2 hour drive through loads of construction, rain, and a hint of thunder. We wanted to see the Gateway Arch again (we had stopped years ago when we drove to Colorado with the family), but it looked like the rain was going to hold us back. However, as we parked, the rain stopped and there was some blue sky peaking out. We decided to buy tickets to go up to the top of the arch despite threats of low visibility. To get to the top, you have to climb in this incredibly tiny capsules stuffed with 5 people. I don't recommend this to anyone who is claustrophobic. However, once you get to the top, the view is well worth it. It turns out that the sun decided to come out and the visibility was great! To one side we saw the Mississippi River and the other side was the city. We could see right into the Cardinals stadium, rooftop pools, and tons of highways. It was awesome. After traveling back down, we went a little crazy taking pictures of the arch from the ground. There are just so many artsy shots that you can get and for some reason the arch is just really beautiful. It was built as the gateway to the west, symbolizing western expansion, and it really does a great job of capturing that I feel. We had a great time in the park there before heading out on our next leg.
We had about 5.5 more hours of driving to do. It was pretty rough since it was really hot. We crossed the entire state of Missouri and entered into Kansas. Right now we're at a campsite just outside of Topeka. There's no pool here, just a brown lake with lots of geese nearby. It's not the nicest campsite, but there's a nice breeze. Tomorrow we have the long drive all the way across Kansas to Limon, CO. Our goal is to head out early and stop as infrequently as we can. We don't want to be driving in the heat of the day as much. Also, there's a pool waiting for us at our next site :-).
Alrighty, I think that's about all we have for the day. Hope everyone is doing well!
No comments:
Post a Comment