Joplin, MO - First stop

Day 1: We've safely arrived in Joplin, MO -- I can't tell how big it is because it was 11:10pm when we rolled in, but there are a plethora of hotels, apparently full -- it's a good thing we've got reservations. From the smell, a tomcat has apparently left his calling card under the stairs, but the room clean and has a soft spot - no, two soft spots -- to land and zonk.

We started a little later than expected because of a wake and funeral for Kathleen Neale, the kid's Day Care provider when they were little, and got out of Naperville about 1pm -- only 5 hours later than expected (probably 3 in reality; we never get started on time).

Weather was uneventful, traffic light, the Garmin is working great: it gives elapsed time, distance to destination, speed, cool stuff. Things went well, although I saw pink elephants just outside of St. Louis (ok, so it was 1 elephant, and everybody else saw it too.) Life sized advertisement for an antique store. Shouldn't that be white? It reminded us of the 'safety moose' in Wisconsin on the way to Minneapolis.

The Garmin got us a Cracker Barrel in Troy just short of St. Louis:
I don't have time to photoshop Corey's head. So sorry :-)

Waved hello the Arch as we zoomed by.

Saw some really odd structures just south of St. Louis that looked like two uncompleted barrel-shaped water towers next to the expressway -- but they looked at least a decade old. Haven't a clue, but the scaffolding with zig-zagging stairways leading 100 feet into the air was impressive looking.

Saw a really nice sunset in Missouri, where the land became very hilly and heavily forested. It was interesting to see the smokey-looking clouds of fog filling the valleys.

Tomorrow we hit Mal-Wart to find some back support for me (and Kelley), and head off to Albuquerque on what will be the longest leg of our journey -- 12 hours of driving, not counting stops. Well, we deliberately put the longest drives at the beginning. Kids did fine today; tomorrow will be the test :-).

Time to sleep -- it's after midnight. *snore*