Whicker’s World of Wandering Wondering
I’m learning all sorts of valuable tidbits on this trip to share with you all…
Leaving on New Year’s Day is an excellent idea. There aren’t any trucks on I-81, making you a 3 sided sandwich at 85mph. Which is way above the speed limit and into the reckless driving category in Va. There are very few cars on the road. Eeryone wanted to nurse the hangover through Sunday. Not so good an idea was hitting I-64 in rain in the dark through the mountains of Va and WVa. I was so glad I didn’t have Tali, Mason’s horse in the back through the hairpins and the layers of fog.
Sunday, I discovered that the worst of the mountains were in that first 3/4 WVa and the rest of the way was much easier and faster. We were really rolling at a good solid gallop and decided that St. Louis was not only within our grasp, but we could make it to Kansas City. I discovered another mangled bit of geography from my early youth. St Louis, Missouri isn’t next to Louisville Ky.:eek: Someone, when I was thinking other lofty thoughts, or saving a fox, stuck 2 more states in there! Where did Indiana and Illinois get into the act??? They’re suppose to be somewhere up north near the Chicago area and deal with lake effect snow, right??? Well… no… They slumped and sagged and pushed the Ohio river out of place in a fit of peak. They also didn’t behave like mid western states should. They had major hills and streams and full size woods, not corn fields.
We discovered that St Louis is on the eastern edge of Mo, not on the west, like I remembered. And there are a bunch of rivers there, including…wait for it… the Missouri! The Missippi isn’t the big river there that one sees on the newscasts. Mason’s brother, Braadley, sadly explained to me that happens after the Missouri and the Ohio get into the act and mix it up, to put it delicately for my ears…
After driving for hours, looking for the “Welcome to Kansas” I arrive at Kansas City to discover it isn’t in Kansas any more. It was relocated to Mo. Maybe it was pushed by those other 2 states. Have to ask Big Bay Tb about it. There is a plot in there I know…
Tomorrow stay tuned for part 2:
“Why sailboats aren’t used to cross Nebraska”
I did the KS to NC route Dec ‘09 pulling a horse trailer, at night, on the WV turnpike. They dont’ make Scotch strong enough to calm you down after that experience.