Day One - Saturday May 2, 2009

The sun followed us all day, sometimes dulled by clouds and overcast skies, sometimes clearly overhead, but always welcome, especially when its rays cast a glow against the cloud banks that spread from the western horizon to over our moon roof. A few miles passed and we found ourselves in Indiana and crossing through flat farmland - familiar to us from many trips to Indianapolis and, honestly, pretty boring. We were rewarded, however, as we approached Indiana's capital city and saw weirdly shaped blobs of gray seemingly randomly arranged in the sky over the downtown area. As we approached the city the blobs became more clearly shaped and colored - hot air balloons extended from north to south and then from east to west in all assortment of colors and designs. It was a delightful gift to our morning.

As we traveled westward on I70 spring sprang into our consciousness - chartreuse was everywhere - spring green with tinges of yellow and deeper green exploded around us as we traveled on. In some fields vibrant yellow flowers flowed on both sides of the road - probably mustard but we weren't sure. Of course that reminded us of our time in India where we also saw fields of mustard growing in Rajasthan. (See our India Blog http://www.travelwithbussell.blogspot.com/.) The golden glow of the mustard fields far exceeded anything we had seen at the Warm Glow Candle Factory west of Richmond IN on an earlier visit!

As we drove through Terre Haute IN for our first McDonald's break of the trip, we saw Indiana State University and lots of references to Larry Bird, ISU's greatest basketball player who went on to a great career with the Boston Celtics. We crossed the Wabash River and then into Illinois where the dogwoods dotted the woods that bordered the interstate in the area northeast of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. Our own dogwood was still struggling to bud not to mention bloom when we left Foos Road. Hopefully it will be green and vibrant by the time we get home, though neither of us are holding our breath given its performance in the past two years!

Billboards led us to the Blue Springs Cafe and Bakery in Pierron IL for "mile high pie" for lunch. Actually we didn't have any pie and it really wasn't mile high, but nearly 12 inches - most of which was merage (sorry - I can't spell it and the spell check can't figure it out either - it's that fluffy egg white stuff that always looks so good but that I really don't like!). The fried chicken and meatloaf, however, were great!

Before we crossed the Mississippi River north of St. Louis we drove through Vandalia IL, Illinois' first state capital. We visited there several years ago on a trip to Ft. Collins CO to visit our son Mark and his wife Trisha and grandsons Ethan and Jerad. We always like to visit state capitals and Vandalia was a small lovely and historic community.

Once we crossed the Mississippi River we drove past St. Charles MO which was the first capital of Missouri and which we had visited on the same trip to Ft. Collins. It was well-developed for tourism with shops and restaurants along the river and we had enjoyed an excellent dinner in an open air restaurant on that earlier trip.

We arrived in Jefferson City - the capital of Missouri (are you getting the theme here?) - and checked into our hotel. We have discovered that if we stop to rest, it's all over, so off we went again to visit the state capitol. Once again we were rewarded for our self-discipline by an extraordinary campus centered by the capitol building itself - a large and grand replica of the national capitol - very impressive. But that's not all. The campus included an extensive set of memorials and parks and gardens. First we visited the Lewis and Clark memorial that was developed for the Bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery celebrated from 2004-2006. If you've read our previous blogs (see web address above), you know that we spent August of 2007 exploring the western United States via the northern route and spent a lot of tourism hours on celebrating and commemorating the Lewis and Clark epic. So it was fun to revisit the story here in Jefferson City so close to where the expedition actually began (St. Louis). Also on the grounds of the state house were a war memorial, a police officers memorial, Jefferson Landing (with original buildings from Jefferson City's earliest settlement), and the Governor's residence and gardens. Altogether it was quite an impressive collection.

We returned to the hotel for a short rest which became longer when we realized that it was Kentucky Derby Day! Given Harold's Kentucky heritage, we always try to watch the Derby. And given that Jennifer will be at the University of Louisville for a postdoc at U of L's Center for Asian Democracy next year, our interest in all things Kentucky is expanding beyond bourbon! It was an incredible race as you know if you watched it. Great fun and excitement!

After the race we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was an Italian restaurant so of course Harold and I had our usuals - spaghetti with meat sauce and lasagne respectively. It was all right but nothing to write home about so I won't. What was fun was that it was prom night! We found ourselves surrounded by a motley assortment of other diners - several prom couples dressed to the nines and seemingly having a pretty good time; plus several older couples dining together and also dressed for dining out on Saturday night in the old standard of jackets and ties and dresses with a "Sunday-Go-To-Meeting" look; plus families; plus couples like us still in what looked like the clothes they had had on all day!

At the end of the day we returned to the hotel - totally exhausted and needing sleep after nearly eight hours on the road and a bit of tourism, too! Of course the television had to be consulted for its hypnotic powers and who would have guessed but the best offering was National Geographic's (aka NatGeo) history of moonshining! How appropriate!

I'm writing this entry after four days on the road. We're in Durango CO as you may read in the next three entries to come and it's the first time we've settled anywhere for more than an overnight and I feel the energy available to write. I've also consciously resisted getting started with the blog and was wishing that I had not emailed so many people to tell them about the blog. That email has gotten me to actually do the writing. But why write in the first place? Because with so many experiences coming at us (honestly, especially me), I really will enjoy sitting back and reading these memories when they begin to fade from my actual memory - or whatever part of it may be available in the years to come. So enjoy - I know I am!