Sunday, June 19

Lots of driving...lots of fun today.

We left Diana and Jerry's house rather abruptly this morning after a nice hot breakfast.  The sky was darkening and we didn't want to pack the car in the rain, so we threw everything in at 8AM, just in time to avoid a major deluge!

First stop was to see the world's largest cross in Effingham, IL.  It is 198 feet tall and 113 feet wide, forged out of over 180 tons of steel and surrounded by the Ten Commandments and piped in music.  The height of the cross was chosen to exceed the dimensions of another cross in Texas, but under FAA regulation that requires structures over 200 feet to have lights on top.

Next stop was historic Vandalia, IL.  It was the center of Abe Lincoln's early political activities.  Did we have time to see all that, though?  Nope, instead we saw a replica of the Gateway Arch (it is a Travelodge sign) and a fire breathing dragon. Unfortunately, the tokens clogged up the machine and we did not see him breath fire.

Roland is doing the driving and Barbara is knitting.  I finished my first pair of socks of the trip today.  The pattern is Yomut by Hunter Hammersen in the book Silk Road Socks.  The yarn is Foxfire Fibers Flock Sock.  Yummy local (to home) yarn!

St. Louis, Missouri was a more interesting stop to see the Arch.  We took a tiny little elevator that held 5 people in its pod shaped compartment up 630 feet.  It felt a little like being in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the glass elevator that moved in any direction.  This elevator has to travel up the arched shaped structure to the top, so the 8 elevators stack up under ground, rise fairly straight much of the way and then spread back out at the top.  We did not, however, go shooting out the top of the building, like Charlie did.

After we toured the Arch, we hopped back in the car and headed to Sedalia, MO to see Uncle Jerry.  We took him out to Baskin Robbins for ice cream!  The flavors of the day were Praline and Cream for Barbara and Mint with Oreo Cookie low-fat for the better behaved Roland.  It was nice to see Uncle Jerry!

Off to the last stop with another 4 hours of driving to Salina, KS for a few hours sleep.  We arrived at Motel 6 at around midnight and will be off again around 7:30 to go to Denver, CO.

We are spending two nights in Salt Lake City.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be in the same place, so I hope to get more on-line time to put up more pics and tell you about all the fun we are having.


Here are the states that we have driven through so far...and we have stopped to see something in every one, so far.


visited 11 states (22%)
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