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 5 .... Chasing through Nebraska

Today was a slow start.  Ceilidh had an episode at 4 am .... (our Pyrenees is an epileptic ... whoda thunk?)   She gets rather discombobulated for an hour or so afterwards ... sorta loses her whereabouts and recognition.  It is a horrible thing to watch, but Astrid assures that she is fine during and after, as long as it doesnt last too long.   So ... long night.

Awake late.  Pull down camp (hoses, electrics, water, jacks etc .... not exactly roughing it ... )  Then fill the propane, and on into Cabela's to pick up some RV accessories.  Then sit for an hour and update the blog ... finally.  On the road at about 1:30 pm.

A Note on Google Maps - Speed and distance.

When looking at possible routes, I relied on google maps ... very useful tool.  However, beware, as it estimates time based on very fast speeds :-)  For instance, the trip across Wyoming (Green below, through to Nebraska) is noted as 735 km and a time of 6 hours 30 minutes...   hmmm .... quick check and that is over 113 km per hour.  At first I thought it was illegal speeds, but many of the freeways here are posted at 75 Miles per hour limit.

The problem is, in the motorhome, we're running at about 100 km/hr or 62-63 mph.  Day one was about 58 mph.   In the end, relying on Google Map's times means we're playing catch up in the motorhome !

Crossing Nebraska

Since we got a late start, and our reliance on google, we had to run for a good part of the day ... to about 10:30 pm.  (also lost an hour crossing into Central Time Zone)   Crossing Nebraska is more interesting than Wyoming, but miles and miles of the same.

Stopped at a gas station where Astrid spotted some GMO corn ... "all the ground cover is dead, except for stalks .... pesticides etc !".  Astrid has been watching the Monsanto Overlords with a solid dose of scepticism and disdain ... organic is the flavour of her day.

We roll through Lincoln, grab a bite at the DQ (in a hurry) ... and travel to Nebraska City to park for the night.   St. Louis beckons tomorrow, with a visit with Deryck and Wendy Whiteley ('82 Mech Eng - Waterloo classmate)  Looking forward to taking it easy for a short bit ... no doubt some beer, wine, good food, and lotsa lies to be told.  Google tells me 582 km to their doorstep tomorrow... likely pull in 3-4 pm ... although I said 1-2 pm.....  

Dogs fed.  Cat out from under the couch (stays there all day long ... till motors stop).  All is well.

Cheers for now.

Astrid 'n Steve