It's 6:33 am on Wednesday morning, and this is the first chance I've gotten to write the whole trip thus far. The only reason I can do it now is because it's still dark outside and I can see the monitor in the car (unlike during the day when the monitor is not viewable). Internet access has not been an easy commodity to come by.

There's also been some strange dejavus and allusions to other trips...Forrest Gump, Car Trouble, and Musical Motel Rooms. I'll get to that later. Or maybe not....looks like the sun is starting to lighten the Oklahoma sky.

One thing before I go...the Ozarks really impressed me. I didn't even realize I would be traveling through the Ozarks on this trip...I guess I'm a bit geographically challenged to that part of the country. This week in April is like the equivalent of mid-May in Madison. Redbuds and lilacs were blooming, but not just in people's yards. Redbuds were WILD blooming along the hillsides. WILD Redbuds! Freerange Redbuds, uncontrolled, unsupervised Redbuds!!! How cool was that? This is such a pretty region of the country, it's just a pity there is such poverty as well. We saw more trailer homes and burned out/collapsed buildings along the roadside than in the past 18 years of living in Wisconsin combined. I guess it would be a good place to retire too, as the standard of living is probably much less than in the north and one could live cheaply. It would be interesting to see the Ozarks in the fall as well, to see if it is just as pretty. Topographically, it is more similar to western Wisconsin with the rolling hills and limestone cliffs. Northern Illinois is boring beyond belief, flat as a pancake. But I already knew that. Southern Illinois is more interesting...Springfield seemed an attractive town. Got lost a bit driving through the outskirts of St. Louis and only glimpsed the arch from the distance. Note to anyone who ever wants to travel route 66 and doesn't have endless time to do it or want to be a purist about it: Skip it in the big cities...you'll just get confused and lost. Just take the interstate and bypass the city and catch back up with it again in the country. The country stretches of the route are more fun anyway. We also spent too much time going through Tulsa and getting confused. Too much time wasted with the larger city parts of the Route.

Motel/Hotel rates have been cheap so far, no more than $50 so far per night before tax. Monday night we stayed in a motel in Lebanon, Missouri. She gave us the "Route 66 room" which had photos on the wall. It was quiet, but had no internet access. Last night we got a Super 8 in Oklahoma City. It was amazingly quiet considering all the cars there. That was the first time I was able to check my internet, but considering it was after 10 pm by the time I got to do that, I didn't have any time to post anything. I wasn't able to get many pictures either...sometimes it's hard to pull off or even find a place to pull off. Sometimes it's best to just keep going and leave the image to memory rather than pixels. The few pictures I do have i'll post, but only if I have time.

Labels: Route-66-Part1, Vacation