I don't like long days of driving. In my younger days, I drove eleven or twelve hours a day, but these days, I think seven hours are enough.
When I planned this day, I figured on taking H. 55 past Springfield, through St. Louis and along the Missouri River to Sikeston, Missouri. Gary said it would be better to go east to Highway 39 and working south on Highway 39 on down to Sikeston on Highway 57. He said I would avoid city traffic that way.
I followed his advice. I took along a camera so I could take photos of the scenery. It didn't work out that way. From the time I left the farmhouse until 4:30 pm, Illinois was covered with fog. I could see a few yards from the Interstate, but that was it. My view was of the backs of semi trailers and of drivers going far too fast for conditions. I was pleased I didn't choose to drive through St. Louis. On a sunny day, I have no problems with cities, but in the fog, I would have made more than one wrong turn.
At 4:30, I was at Effingdon and still had a long way to go. I had only about an hour before sunset and all I was passing was flat farm land. By the time I was passing through the Shawanee National Forest, with its rock escarpment and vast spread of trees, the sun had set and all I had were shadowy outlines of trees. No photo ops there.
It took me 8-1/2 hours of hard driving to get to this motel in Sikeston. I figure on being in bed by 9:00.
Tomorrow is going to be a warm day with a minimum of driving....I hope. Tomorrow it's Tennessee then Mississippi.
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