Final Pictures of Springfield Trip

Here are some pictures of the cookout we had at Ed and Jennifer's the Sunday I was in Springfield.


































Getting the fire all ready for the chicken.


















Me peeling taters.


















Ed getting the chicken set to put out on the grill. Don't be concerned he usually looks that way.



































Ready to start cooking!

Final Pictures of Springfield Trip II

This is the view from one of the rest stops on Interstate 68. I really need to go back and see this area when the leaves start to turn. I'm just a couple of hours out from DC when I took these pictures.

MS Ride

Here are some pictures of the MS Ride that my sister-in-law, Jennifer, did last weekend.

















Jennifer is on the left. Her riding partner Teresa is on the right. As you can tell it got a little rainy.

















































































































































This is on the morning of the second day after we found out that the ride had been canceled. Teresa and I are taking some pancakes back for her husband and daughter. I have syrup in the coffee cup!

Springfield Greenway

Throughout Springfield is the Greenway. As the name implies it is a green way. It is an area of park land set aside for walking, jogging bike riding etc. We went to an area called Close Memorial Park. It has a Japanese Garden along with a rose garden and a pond you can walk around. Here are some pictures of it. We had a nice stroll around it on Sunday before we went back to Ed and Jennifer's and started our cookout.

Springfield Greenway II

Here's a heron that we spotted on our walk.

Back Home

I made it home.

I stayed at a place over night. There's a story about this too.

I will be writing some more on the trip about the runaway truck ramp. The big jump in gas prices and they'll be more pictures too.

But tonight I'm just going to relax some and go to bed early.

Sunday in Missouri

The second day of the ride was canceled. What was left of Hurricane Ike roared through the area early Sunday morning. Dumped a great deal of rain. The concern was local flooding of roads and low areas. Also the wind.

People in general were sad about it. Most of the people staying at our motel were doing the ride. A sign was posted at the front entrance saying the ride for the day had been canceled.

I rode over to the school where the ride was being staged with a Jennifer and a friend of hers to get their bikes. The playground space behind the school was used to house the bikes. Most of them had already been picked up by the time we got there. Many of the riders had people who drove down to where they were staying. I think many were concerned about the storm. So they loaded the bikes onto their vehicles. Others were having the bikes shipped back to where they started the ride and were then going to take shuttles back to that town.

We got their bikes into Jennifer's friend's pick up and then went inside to have some of the pancakes they were serving. Once we were done we headed back to the motel. We got the bikes all squared away and then looked in to see if Ed was awake yet. After a little while we all headed over to Denny's so Ed and dad could have breakfast. And since we were there Jennifer and I had a little something too.

A little after 9:30 we headed back to Springfield. Now we are relaxing some and watching football. A little later this afternoon we plan on going out and doing something. Then cooking out at Ed and Jennifer's.


A picture of the Downstream Casino and hotel. The hotel has yet to open.



Here we all out outside the school where the ride ended for the day on Saturday.

In Joplin

We're in Joplin Missouri.

Jennifer has completed the first leg of the MS 150. I was supposed to ride but thing happened which prevented it from happening. It was a little rainy. Tomorrow the rest of Ike is supposed to be heading up this way. I'm not sure if or how much rain will be hitting this area. The ride might go on or it might not.

Yesterday my dad and I went to his gym. We also saw Burn After Reading. What a very very funny movie.

While Jennifer was out riding, Ed, dad and myself were at a casino. A brand new casion that opened not far from Joplin. It is called Downstream. I won just about enough money to get us all lunch at the buffet that was there. Dad did the best in winnings. He played a buck and got 20 in return. Too bad all investments don't work out that way.

Ozarks Steam Engine Assoc.

My dad and I went to Ozark Steam Engine Association's annual event. It's not far from Springfield. These are old fashioned tractors that were run on steam power. They also could be used to run other farm equipment too such as a threshing machine.




This is a power horse. Take a good long look at it and see if you can figure out the joke here. Click on the picture to get a larger view.

Pictures from the Drive to Springfield

Here are a few pictures from my drive out to Springfield.

These are from my drive along Interstate 68. Some incredible views.

The sun rises. I'm just west of St. Louis

Looks LIke I Made It

I made it to Springfield.

I left DC around 3:30 pm on Tuesday and made it to Springfield around 10 am local time on Wednesday.

It was a very interesting drive. I'd planned my way out of DC and watched the GPS constantly update my route. I made it out of the city in good time. I took 270 to 70 and then to 68. This is a new interstate which goes through parts of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. You end of driving to Cumberland and I think through the Cumberland Gap. Cumberland looks like a really cool place. I'm going to have go back and investigate.

The scenery there was fantastic. Lots of twists and turns on the road and up hills and down through the mountains. I also went past the eastern continental divide.

There was some fog and rain but not all that bad. The fog was usually off to the side of the road. I came down into one valley and at tree top level was this patch of fog maybe 50 feet by 50 feet. It looked so cool.

Somewhere in Ohio the clouds cleared and there was a half moon that accompanied on my journey until it set sometime around 3 or 4.

I Drove All Night

There's a reason I ended up all night.

I need to set the stage. I had a pretty good drive into Indiana. I'm not going to say that's when problems started more like complications.

The first thing is that the road signs are difficult to read at night. This is true when you are in the right hand lane and is especially true when you are in the left hand lane.

The next thing is the huge number of trucks on the road. I felt like I was the only car. The trucks also all seemed to be in the right hand lane. 

Seeing the signs was thus further complicated because of all the trucks. I tried to use my GPS to locate places to stay but it was hard to scroll through the screens and see the road a the same time. 

I missed a couple of exit for places to stay due to the signs and the trucks blocking the signs. Finally I decided I had to fine a place.

It is now close to 1:30 am. I've been on the road since 3:30 pm. I find a potential place a Super 8. I take the exit. I drive to where the Super 8 is. The entrance (I use that term loosely) is a gravel parking lot which leads to sort of a paved/gravel road with many pot holes that leads to the Super 8 parking lot. 

I get out and walk to the office. The main lobby is closed but there is a night check in room. The door into this room is the best way I can describe it as being off its hinges. It will not close correctly. I enter the room. It has an ice machine which in incredibly loud. I close the door and look at the wall behind the door. At the level of the door nob on the wall there is a hole. I can only assume someone opened the door too quickly. I think to myself that I'll only be here for four or five hours and I can take this.

The guy who checks people in is behind a glass window. Think of how tellers are at banks. But tellers have a whole at head level where you can talk back and forth to each other. That's not the case here. Because the ice machine is so loud the only way to hear the guy is to stick you ear to the slot you pass paper back and forth to hear what the guy. I ask how much is the room. One more quick piece of information the sign outside the Super 8 says rooms start at $31 and up. I figure I'm not going to get a room for that price. The guy says a single for the night is $50. I say thanks and turn away. I'm sorry there is no way that I'm paying that much money for a room. The guy gets my attention and beckons me back to him. I just wave and say bye.

There are a couple more choices at this exit. Both don't pan out. One the office is closed and the other is for truckers. I figure I'm getting close enough to Indianapolis that there be more places just a little further down the road. 

I get back on the high way. It is now around 2. I start thinking do I want to find a place that is east of Indianapolis. I have to drive right through the center of the city. Do I really want to do that in the middle of rush hour on Wednesday. I figure the thing to do is get n the western side of the city and find a place. I figure that shouldn't take all that long. I was so wrong. I will say I did get to drive right past the new football stadium. It was really cool.

It took me about 45 minutes to get to the other side of Indy. I start thinking again. It's now like 2:45 am. I find a place move, register, move all my stuff in the room. That'll take like 30 minutes or so. I take a shower and then get into bed. Might take a little time to go to sleep. So like 4 am I'm drifting off only to wake up 5 or 6 hours later. Seems like a waste of money. I decide the thing to do is just keep on going. 

And that's what I did.