VACATION - St. Louis to Joplin, Missouri

Thursday Feb 24, 20100

We got up at 4am and dressed to head into the house.  Donna needs to leave by 5:15 for work ... so she invited us in for coffee and donuts.... and to keep Sam outta trouble for the morning!   LOL

She showed us some of Riggen's tricks..  he sure is a CLOWN!   Even at 5am he is raring to go!

We let the doggers come into the back yard, and Riggs thought that Ducky was one classy gal,  but little Dukie kinda hung close to me, as the big dogs were playing and he was just getting in the way. Little Sadie Mae just wansn't happy with all these new dogs in the house, so she went and hid out in a bedroom.

After having our HUGE donuts and coffee, said our goodbyes to Donna..  Sam and I did some computering....  he showed us a better way to get where we wanted to go, on some new roads.

Then the two guys proceeded to solve all the world's problems with another cup of coffee.   I noticed that my throat was getting sore, and I was suddenly losing my voice.  Turns out my darling beedle bug Chelsea has shared her head cold with me!   Erin said they took her to the doc today, and she had ear infections in both ears, pink eye in both eyes and a viral cold.   So I am thinking this is the shape of things to come with me?   I went out the rig, dozed up good with my vitamins, and extra C and some Airborne and a Claritin D ... and hauled out the throat spray and cough drops.

About 10 am it was time to head out on the road.  As much as we hated to say goodbye, we decided it was time to get a moveon. We were parked right in their driveway near their big fifthwheel.

Because we pulled in forwards, now we had to back out....  and you can not back up a toad (towed vehicle) as it will ruin the expensive tow bars.  So it was best to just back out the rig first, and then hook up the Tracker after we got the rig out. I drove the Tracker out the extra driveway while Sam expertly guided Steve backwards down the driveway.  He then walked right out in the road, held up his arm in perfect police-chief style (Sam IS a retired police officer!)  and got Steve a cleared out spot in the traffic to get out.   I scooted along ahead of Steve to the church parking lot down the road.  Then we pulled in there to hook up the Tracker  and we were back on the road again!   (see me scooting along ahead of him?)

THANK YOU TO DONNA AND SAM FOR THE KINDNESS AND HOSPITALITY!  

 (and the good donuts too!) 

We headed on down Interstate 44 through pouring rains, some thunder and a bit of wind.  The winds were switching around and we had some tail winds too!   But it was boring and rainy and I kept coughing and not feeling so well.

We were getting weary of the rain, and decided to pack it in early and hit a comfy spot to stop for the night.   We were thinking of staying in the Fly J where we stopped for fuel,  but we had also seen a Sam's Club nearby so after our fill-up we headed there.

4:45 fuel stop flying j in joplin mo
57 gal @3.48 198.29

I whipped up some supper while Steve walked the dogs outside.  We are parked in a nice quiet lot, and have a horse trailer and 2 semis alongside us.  All is quiet and the store is closed....   I took a nap while Steveio walked the dogs.  The rain let up and now it's calm, no winds, and no more rain.  But the temps are dropping!   We are down to about 35 now and gonna get to about 28 tonight.  We watched some local news and weather.  Tomorrow looks like a better day.

I just hope this head cold goes away!

271 miles travelled today
829 miles total