Our Journey East - Day 6 .... Arrival in St. Louis

Stuffed $30 into the envelope and dropped it into the deposit box heading out from Victorian Acres RV Park in Nebraska City in the a.m.  On the road .... looks like it's going to be a wet day.

Rainy Day on the i29 highway ... south to Kansas City

Not a great deal to see on this day ... just pushing to get to St. Louis.  We did see a large Ritchie Bros. Auction site east of Kansas City .... looked like a big operation.  ( Ritchie Bros are world wide success story - heavy equipment auctioneers started up from Kelowna and B.C. )

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers - east of KC

Finally arrived at the stately Manse of Deryck & Wendy Whiteley in O'Fallon, west of St. Louis to be met with smiles and salutations on the driveway.  Bring out the dogs for a greeting and on into the home to catch up.   Both Deryck and Wendy are entrepreneurs with their own separate businesses, successfully beating the Rush Hour traffic with 12 metre commutes.

Wendy splashes out some wine and Deryck pulls out some steaks and slays the beasts on the BarBQ ... perfectly cooked & paired with wine and desert, all the while catching up.  Twas almost 30 years since our last dinner party in T.O. !   Jason, a wunderkind by most accounts and the gentleman son of our guests joined us for the occasion.  We'll have to visit the brewery (Jason's workplace) on the next trip ! A few laughs, a few tales, and a great meal, complete with  fruit and ice wine toppers.  Nice.

Deryck, Jason, Wendy Whiteley - Hosts with the Most

After dinner, Deryck and Steve took Connor and Ceilidh out for a 2 mile walk, after which the pyr's  flaked out on the floor appreciating the generous hospitality and the fact that floor was not moving.  Robbie Too remained camped out in the moho.  Twas a nice stop in the flurry of travel and a welcome visit for us all.  Many thanks !

Up the next day, coffee and emails, sending Deryck off early to conquer the real estate world, then back on the road.  All too short, but a memorable part of our journey.

Off we go ... waving good bye.

Cheers

Astrid 'n Steve 

Our Journey East - Day 3 .... Heading in to Utah in HOT HOT weather.

We leave Mountain Home and head south, after filling up the thirsty beast.  Similar terrain and geography in southern Idaho ... very hot outside  .... 90°F ++ so A/C again is a blessing.  Everything running cool in the moho with the 7.5 kw generator running the roof AC unit, together with the dash A/C.

 After miles of dry hot desert, we venture into northern Utah with more of the same.  It was not until we got near to Salt Lake that the greenery started to show a bit.  Obviously a lot of oil/gas processing in the state, as we pass a number of refineries.

 I wanted to roll through Salt Lake City and see the Mormon Churches as that is where my dad, Fred, spent several trips gathering genealogy data for the Dimond and Campbell clans.  We manage to take a few far away shots from the freeway ... have to do ... now Friday at 5 pm .... Rush Hour !  Interesting city, Salt Lake ... with homes climbing up the surrounding hills.  Must have fabulous views.

We continue along and take the Freeway east that climbs the hills up to Park City and the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics.  Running up the hill, we see Red Soil ... hints of PEI :)  We see the ski jumps .... not really mountains by BC standards, but must get some snow in winter.

Another attempt to connect to internet over cell phone, to no avail.  Useless and frustrating ... mountains must be an issue.  Not long after, we tire and pull into Evanston, Wyoming, and grab one of the last spots at a decent little site, Phillips RV Park.  Get all the hookups sorted, animals fed, and walk to a neighbouring Mexican food restaurant.  Astrid has a marvelous marguerita that she raves about, and we each chow down on Mexican fare.  Rolaids at the ready.  Robbie the cat remains a bit freaked out ...

We are running about 6 hours behind the planned schedule... oh well, not too bad all things considered.

That's it for now...

Cheers
Astrid 'n Steve