What did you do today? Yeah, I learned the first four tapes of teach-yourself-Spanish while driving through Indiana. That's what I thought.
It's a good thing I posted two pictures from yesterday, because I spent today in a fight with my camera. Apparently the reason it was on clearance at Staples is because it eats batteries, and I just do not have the patience to reason with a camera which asks you to put new batteries in every five pictures. I'm heeding my friend Lisa's advice and opening up my other senses, trying to absorb my experiences in other ways.
I had a great morning in Lexington. It was a tiny bit frosty, just like it has been in Athens, but #1 on my list of Adventure Rules is to go for a jog every morning in a new place, so I bundled up and went for about twenty minutes around the downtown-ish area. Sunday mornings are perhaps my favorite thing about jogging. I love watching a town slowly wake up. I made double-apple-cranberry muffins for Dave and Rose, which we enjoyed over coffee and the Lexington Herald-Leader. And we had an extra hour of sleep, so we were off to an early start!
The springs where Lexington was founded are part of a greater watershed system of artesian wells that ultimately lead to the Kentucky River. We enjoyed a nice brisk walk and learned about the foundation of the town (lots of British colonials) and then I skipped off to Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky. I got a little twisted up driving around Frankfort, so I didn't spend much time kicking around, but I did walk around the outside of the Capitol building. You can really feel the colonial influences in the architecture and history of Kentucky, which I wasn't expecting. I followed US-60 into Louisville (also known as Louvul), where I got on an interstate for the first time in my trip.
The trouble with interstates is that they are sometimes the shortest line between point A and point B. This was the case for the next leg of my journey, but at any rate I was getting a little tired of the slower pace on the back roads. Some interstates are delightful, anyway; I-77 and I-79 through West Virginia, for example, make a splash as far as challenging twists & turns and scenic beauty go. So I suppose I'm undecided on the subject of interstates.
I'm starting to wish I had a tape recorder with me, because I come up with all manner of lucid things to say while I'm driving, and by the time I sleepily sit down in the evening, they've flown away. So it goes.
I had to drive through southern Indiana and Illinois to reach St. Louis and Missouri. I made short order of Indiana, thanks to I-64. November is almost a sad time to travel; I pass through town upon town that is caught between fall and winter, mourning the vibrance of summer and not yet in the groove with cold weather. I passed empty fields that only a month ago were surely high with corn and now were flat, flat, flat, the last entrails already cleared away to give the ground rest. The trees, too, are caught in this limbo, some still flush with green, some turned autumn's rusty bronzes, and others entirely barren.
I stopped at a rest area just inside of Illinois to eat some lunch. By this point, I was beginning to tire of the interstate and its homogeneous monotony, so I pulled out my atlas and picked a back road that would easily get me into St. Louis. I was so glad I did! Even though I wound up taking a little bit more time, it passed by much more quickly! I drove through Ashley, Illinois, pop. 450, and assorted other small towns amidst farmland.
This is something that I am especially proud of for this trip thus far: I have planned out my routes. Using maps. And reading them myself. It's very easy to go on your own personal map quest, and you don't even need a computer! All you need is a map (or more, depending on how big your map is) and you find out where you are and where you want to go and then you figure out which roads will get you there. And then you get in your car and do it, and if you get confused just pick the one that says the general direction you want to go, such as "I-44 W" or "I-44 E."
Darkness came early tonight, as two things had changed: daylight savings time ended, and I was now on the eastern edge of Central Time. I think the sky was utterly dark by 5:30. I saw a gorgeous sunset and moonrise, though, as I drove through rural Illinois. The sky was an ocean blue-gray that met in a perfect line with the orangeish rising from the horizon. Hanging in the middle, the slightest crescent of a moon. Enrapturing.
I rolled into the greater St. Louis area just as night fell, and only got a little turned around trying to navigate all of the freeways and highways and not wanting to miss the exit for I-44 West, so many different routes all coming together, and so many cars zipping by, five lanes across. My head was spinning - and then! Suddenly I was on a bridge crossing the Mississippi River! The mighty Mississippi! An impressive divider! The radio stations now start with K! A surge of elation passed through me; I felt butterflies in my stomach. Here I am, on my grand adventure road trip, crossing the Mississippi in St. Louis, Missouri!
I am now safely in Rolla, Missouri, having adventured my way into the Ozarks (I think I'm in the Ozarks now) another seventy miles to the west.
One last monologue for the evening: on destiny: that shall be one of the themes of this adventure, the reminder that we are always the masters of our own destinies. It didn't really hit me until today. I have been actively dreaming of this trip for months, vaguely conceiving of it for years, and here I am! I am on a driving road trip across the country, seeing places I haven't seen and going places I haven't been. Still giddy from crossing the Mississippi, I smiled and pointed my car under the sign that said "West."
Westward ho!
Day 2 mileage: 455. Total mileage: 677.
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