Hot Time in Missouri

Tuesday, August 2 - We are moving west again.  I thought we were leaving the melon country behind, but we came past some produce markets today with Missouri-grown watermelons.  I'm sure they are not as good as the Indiana ones, though.  When we left Indiana in May (when the fields were too wet to plant anything), Joe  wanted to come back through here when they were picking the melons, and when Joe M. and Cathy invited us to go to the Brickyard 400 with them, that sealed the deal -- what's an extra 1,000 miles here and there.  We leave this area behind with very fond memories of this trip (much better than the tornadoes I had to worry about in the spring) and look forward to our next visit.

We got on the road about 9:30 this morning, and yes, the casino was behind a fence.  (This is not the best part of Illinois).  But this campground had security, and a shuttle that went back and forth to the casino -- you just picked up a phone and called for it.  AND, the shuttle even takes guests back and forth to major sporting events, since both the baseball and football stadiums are just across the river.  This would be a great benefit if you were in town for one of those -- not having to fight the traffic or parking. 

As we crossed the Mississippi again, we got a better photo of the magnificent arch guarding this city, and of some of the downtown buildings.

 We took I-55 to I-44 to get through the city, then picked up Hwy 21 for our scenic drive.  We fueled for $3.519, considerably less than Illinois and Indiana.  Hwy 21 was scenic, the foothills of the Ozarks, with lakes, creeks and rivers through the green, rolling hills (and lots of roadkill -- who knew Missouri had armadillos?).

We found a beautiful picnic area on a hilltop in Arcadia Valley, a historic area founded in the 1800s and a popular vacation spot!   So we had our lunch and took a little break, but were back on the road at 1:00.

It was a little too hot for a picnic (100 degrees), but another time this would have been a great spot to do that.

From miles away, we spotted some smokestacks that turned out to be from an old lead smelter company in Glover, Mo.  Expert Joe thought they were probably 500-600 ft. tall.

Somehow, we missed one turn and ended up on on Hwy K for 22 miles, but that too was a scenic road -- a little more hilly and curvy, but pretty. We finally hooked back up with Hwy 21 (and a deer crossed the road in front of us!), and took it to U.S. 60, but the temperature kept creeping up and I looked at the map and figured out that we had added about 100 miles to this drive by taking the scenic route.  We were not going to make it to Branson today, so I started looking for a campground to get us off the road.  We found a campground right on Hwy 60 (Ozark Mountain Springs RV Park) near Mountain View.  It is a nice, shady campground, not very busy right now.  We set up camp about 3:30 p.m., and it was l03 degrees, still going up.  Joe just hooked up the electricity, and we stayed inside the RV for the rest of the day. They are setting record high temperatures all around us -- Springfield (about 40 miles west of us) recorded 108.

Our scenic drive was 222 miles, and we are still 88 miles from Branson.  Hopefully, we'll get in there before it reaches 100 degrees tomorrow and get set up, then find an air conditioned theatre to spend the rest of the day in.  The mountains of Ruidoso are sounding better and better, but that is more than 800 miles away yet.

Leaving Indiana Again

Monday, August 1 - No one was moving too early this morning, but we finally convened in the house at the kitchen table to discuss our get-out-of-town strategy.  Jim and Dixie called and Cathy put them on the speaker phone, so we got to visit with them, and Cathy got out the peach pie - that was breakfast.  Joe is back to his window-washing ways, as Step 1 to get on the road again.

The the saga began of how to get this big old RV out of this little old alley.  First, a little landscaping was necessary.

Then we all took our positions, and Joe began pulling forward, backing up, etc.  We had to watch front, back, and overhead, so it took all of us.  But none of us ever questioned Joe's ability to get the job done.

We did put a little ding in the roof over their window, when our ladder rack scraped under it.  No one was watching on that corner, and I didn't get him stopped quick enough.  I told Joe M. that maybe he could turn it as tornado damage -- you know, Joe the Tornado was here. 

But he finally was able to pull forward, then back into the other part of the alley, to get turned to pull out.  Joe M. was the spotter on this part.

The last part of the mission was to pull between the two cars parked behind the shop next to the bank, but Joe didn't think he could make that, so Cathy went in and got the keys from the beauty shop operator to move her car.  From then on, it was a piece of cake, so we said our goodbyes and hit the road.

We left Bloomington about 10:45 and headed back to Vincennes to pick up Hwy. 50.  We hit Vincennes about 12:30 so we found a place for lunch, then crossed the river into Illinois about 1:00 p.m., leaving Indiana for the second time this summer.  But, believe it or not, there's still lots of Indiana we want to explore, in addition to seeing family (covered bridges, Nashville, fishing and camping at some of the state parks), so we will probably be back here in the RV next year -- maybe in the fall when the leaves are turning.

We drove across Illinois, between the green corn fields.  We changed time zones today, and enjoyed the pretty drive.  We stopped in Flora at a Walmart to restock on groceries, and arrived in East St. Louis about 4:30.  I had found a casino/campground, and amazingly Joe stopped there!  It was 98 degrees here, a drive of 224 miles.  But we are finally heading WEST!  We are right across the river from the arch, and this is a really nice (and secure) campground.  It has a nice laundry, so as soon as we got into our campsite, I gathered up the laundry and got that taken care of.

We headed into St. Louis for White Castles for dinner, but Joe didn't feel too secure in that neighborhood, so we got them "to go," and ate them in the car.  Then we went into the casino, smelling like onions (especially since I was wearing a lot of them).  We drove right past the St. Louis Rams stadium, so we got to see where they play.

We spent a couple hours at the casino, then settled in for the night.  We are right next to a railroad track (of course), but it didn't bother us too much once we got to sleep.  We have our sights set on Branson, Missouri tomorrow -- another checkmark on my bucket list.  But I think it's supposed to be 102 degrees there (I guess it will feel like Arizona).  They just said on TV that today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year -- yeah!

Brickyard 400

Sunday, July 31 - Here we are, at the last day of July.  What better way to close out this month than the NASCAR race in Indy -- the Brickyard 400.  It was an early morning for us -- we had the alarm set for 6:00 a.m., and, after a small taste of Joe M.'s peach pie with our coffee, we headed out.  We beat the rush, so traffic wasn't back up much yet, and in fact, there were still parking spots in the lot at the track.  But Joe M. had a yard picked out, where they parked for the Indy 500, so we parked in someone's yard for $20, and were at the track by 8:00 a.m., so we had plenty of time to wander around this HUGE racing facility.  We had been here back in the 60s and 70s to time trials for the Indy cars, but had never been to any NASCAR race except in Phoenix, so we were excited about this opportunity.  Thank you, Cathy and Joe, for the invitation, and for making it happen.

We found a few vendors outside the track, and rented our radios, then we decided to check out our seats, so we went inside the track.  This is a huge racetrack, with seating on both sides of the front straight-away, so it is impossible to see all the way around the track, regardless of where you sit.  This is a 2 1/2 mile track, compared to our 1-mile track in Phoenix, so it was a much different experience.

Here, we actually were allowed to walk across the hallowed track to the infield, and we could see inside some of the garages, we could see down pit road, we could see a lot of the "behind the scenes" areas, and we watched some cars goes through the pre-race inspection process.

 No. 83 is Brian Vickers, and apparently he passed because he was on the race track. 

We saw the fuel trucks at gasoline alley, the I found a spot to cool off under the misters, which were scattered around (a welcome sight).

We worked our way over the museum (Hall of Fame) and spent a couple hours inside the air conditioning here.  It was strange to look at all these Indy cars at a NASCAR race, but it was all very interesting, and the a/c was wonderful.  They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 this year.

We watched a short video about the history of the track (learned something, naturally), and then found a place to get a hotdog inside another air conditioned building, before we headed out to the heat.  It was in the low-to-mid 90s, but Cathy had found us great seats in the shade, so we weren't too uncomfortable.  When we lived in Terre Haute, Joe actually drove a dump truck on this track during one of their re-pavings.  They had most of the winning cars here in the museum, and they certainly changed drastically over the years.  This is what they looked like when we used to come to the time trials (we never did get to attend an Indy car race here).

And, of course, there's the famous brick yard.

We finally headed back over to the stands, passing by some of the souvenier trailers and one area where the Rascal Flatts band was performing.  They later sang the Star Spangled Banner, but Reba McIntyre sang America the Beautiful, which was awesome.

We had to cross under the track through a tunnel to get back to our seats.  We had a great view of Turn 1 from our seats, and could see the cars as soon as they came out of Turn 4, all the way down the front stretch.  We also had a good view of the first pit stalls. 

I caught 3 cars just leaving the pits.  Brad Keselowski is the No. 2 car, the red car is my guy, Carl Edwards, and No. 88 is, of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The race was good, not many cautions, and only one minor wreck.  Paul Menard, an Indiana boy, was the winner -- another first-time winner this year.  It took us a little while to hike back to the car, and it was hot, but we made it and headed home.  We stopped in Mooresville at Gray Bros. Restaurant for dinner, and got home just after 8:00 p.m., all very tired, but it was a good day. 

The plan, subject to change, is that we are leaving Indiana on Monday.  But Joe has a challenge to get us out of here -- we have low tree limbs in front of us, and the alley dips too much for him to back out the way he came in.  With the overhang of the RV, he would bottom-out before he could get turned into the street.  So we don't know exactly what we have to do to get onto the street; hopefully, we won't take out any garages or trees, or lose any mirrors or air conditioners.  Otherwise, Joe M. and Cathy may have permanent visitors.