We have arrived in Bon's home town of E. Peoria and are staying at her mother's house. We do not have internet in Betty's house, so I just found a hotspot at the town library.
I think our last entry was somewhere along the Santa Fe trail. We reversed the old trail, taking backroads from Santa Fe to Kansas City-- a very long but enjoyable experience. Very little traffic, the scenery gently changing about every 50 miles or so. On the east side of the Rockies we had rocky alkaline looking soil and sparse vegetation on high plains. As the elevation dropped from 6-7,000 feet down to 2,000 or so moving toward the Missouri drainage, and as we got out of the mountain rain shadow, the soils improved and the agriculture came with it. Lush green fields with irrigation replaced the cattle range to the west. We passed through or near historic places of old gun slingers and names from Western movies.
As soon as we got across the bridge into the Missouri side of the river, I got tailgated at 75 mph and greeted by a honking horn and a local with his middle finger waving out the driver's window. I guess Missouri is the "Show Me (the finger)" State. Actually, that was the only rude happening on the entire journey. As soon as we stopped for the night we were greeted by friendly people with that slight southern accent, and sayings such as "Lordy, Lordy" and waitresses calling us "honey."
On Saturday, we hit Hannibal, Missouri about noon so took a break to tour the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens and see the places that inspired the settings for Tom Sawyer and Huckelberry Finn. We toured his old home, which still thas a white picket fence. We drove by but did not have time to tour the cave.
By Saturday night, we were at Betty's-- 2900 miles into our trip. Now Betty is in charge, and she and Bonnie are making all the plans. I just plan to tag along for a week or ten days, then we will be off to Indiana to see my daughter, Michelle and my two granddaughters.
--Mike
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