I love Road Trips!

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Geo: 37.1067, -92.5806

Today was a driving day. I love road trips to new places because you get to take in all the sites along the way. Flying gets you to places faster, but you don't see much from a plane. The first half of the trip today was along roads I had traveled before. The second half was all new to me.

I spent last night in Itasca at my parents house so I could drop Isabelle off for her vacation. That made for easy access to I-355 to get my trip started. Then I-55 all the way to St. Louis. I haven't been this direction since Renee graduated from ISU, but the route to Bloomington seemed the same. I was hoping to see the capitol dome in Springfield, but I couldn't find it while going past. Maybe I'll see it on Tuesday when I stop to visit Auntie Anne! The rest of I-55 to St. Louis was pretty much cornfields and trees.

I was hoping to stop off at the Gateway Arch and take some pictures, however they are doing some construction on the park and the entrance was hard to find. I looked up the website later and found out where the visitor center has been relocated too and where you can park so I might try to stop on my way back through. I don't think I will go up to the top, but I'd like to stand at the bottom and take some pictures of the arch.

From St. Louis, I headed southwest on I-44. I was on this as far as Six Flags my freshman year of college so the rest of the trip was brand new roads for me. The landscape becomes much hillier after you get to St Louis and is a nice change from the flat farmland of Illinois. I saw many state park signs and did get off the highway and drive to one of them. Onondaga Cave State Park sounded promising for a nice cave tour, but it did not work out. I got there right around the time for the 12:30 tour and it was already full. There are lots of billboards for different caves and caverns in the area, but I didn't have time to stop at any others. Also, one of them cost $22 and I wasn't going to pay that!

Eventually, I left the interstate for the more rural highway 63. This heads south and was a very scenic 89 mile ride. I had noticed there seemed to be a lot of dead animals on the side of the road and couldn't figure out what they were. On this highway, I was going slow enough that I was able to determine they were armadillos! So that's different!

The last road I traveled was highway 60, which was really more like the interstate in style. Then I exited to Mansfield and my B&B for two nights, the Weaver Inn. This is located in the oldest building in Mansfield and is run by a really nice lady. Her mom cleans the rooms and her daughter just started working here as well so it is a family business. The Inn also operates a coffee shop on the ground level. I'll get free breakfast and they also have free tea, coffee and cookies after 6PM when the coffee shop closes to the public. I'm looking forward to a nice cup of tea after my long day of travel!

I drove around the tiny town of Mansfield before dinner and it appears fairly run down. The homes aren't much and there really isn't much here. There is a Dollar General and a Subway. There are 4 other places to eat, but I was told not to go to the Ma and Pa's Kettle because the service is really slow and the food is only ok. I got a pulled pork plate from the new BBQ place in town and it was good. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be on any tourists radar except for the fact that Laura Ingalls Wilder ended up her for the last part of her life and that draws fans from all over, including me! Tomorrow I will visit the museum, Rocky Ridge Farm and her grave site. And that's pretty much it!

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