Go.

Seems a little surreal, but we are actually on the road again.    This picture about sums it up.  Another Great American Road Trip.  And the RV is very similar to the old Winnebago that we left in an Iowa junkyard 25 years ago on another Great American Road Trip.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

We managed to leave at 8:45 this morning after loading the last of the supplies and filling the tank with fresh water.  Easy peasy this time, no ice in the lines, no flooding due to leaky faucets like last year.  All the plumbing worked right away.  We even managed to warm up after an hour or so of driving.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for the first day, we even saw the sun for most of the day, a Michigan winter rarity.  I could feel the winter doldrums lifting already.

This seasonal affective disorder is a thing.  Although my doctor said that just about anybody that lives in the north is affected.  “Too much snot and not enough light,” he told me.  “Comes with the territory when you live in the north in the Winter.”  He advised me that I should move to Arizona and work in lawn care.  Instead, I take Vitamin D supplements and am grumpier starting in November.

Doctor Sam was one of a kind.

Our final destination is Giddings, Texas, where we will be volunteering at Tejas Camp and Retreat, a family camp and retreat center located about in the middle of nowhere.  We will be joining six other couples from all over the United States and doing ... well ... I don’t know yet.  We’ll find out when we get there.  It will probably be some sort of maintenance or construction work, depending on the need.

Part of the fun of these trips is getting to know new people who share the same faith and same desire to put that faith in action in tangible ways.  We’ve made some good friends on these trips.

Today’s destination was somewhere around St Louis.  We are due in Texas on Friday so we have about four days to get there.  1200 or so miles divided by three is 400 miles per day and the last day is a short one as we will be spending the last night on the road at my sister’s place in the Dallas area.  Today we clocked in 470 miles.  Not bad. This gives us a little room to make some stops.

We made a couple of stops today.  Leaving I-80, we drove south to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.  Anything with the word “National” in it is bound to have a stamp, and they did, and Deb was able to add one to her collection in her journal.

This place has about 19,000 acres open to the public with lots of trails and opportunities to see their herd of bison.  We stopped here mostly to have lunch and for an opportunity to stretch our legs.  The tall grass is more like dead grass (wrong time of year) and we never did see any bison, but the walk felt good and it was especially nice getting off the interstate.

This route, and the parallel I-55 follow the path of the old Route 66 and we have taken sections of this before. We stopped in Pontiac, at the Route 66 Museum, and saw the VW microbus that was the inspiration for the character “Fillmore” in the movie ​Cars.  It’s owner, Bob Waldmire, was somewhat of an icon in this town, not only for this VW, but also his famous Road Yacht and a lot of artwork that became part of the lore of Route 66.

The woman at the museum also recommended the Museum of the Gilding Arts, just a short walk away, and we visited this also, learning about the ancient art of gilding, or overlaying features with super thin layers of gold.  Rather fascinating, as making this stuff involved lots of physical work, mostly hammering with a very heavy hammer.  Gilding has been practiced for centuries, even biblical times, when lots of features of the temple and its implements were overlaid with hammered gold.

Also interesting in light of recent news that President Trump has been adding many gilded features to the Oval Office.

Another few hours down the road and we arrived here, on the west side of St Louis, at a Cracker Barrel, where we will spend the night.