(Today’s journal title isn’t actually a recorded song as far as I can tell. It’s a parody that David Pratter wrote of a song by Jewel called “Who Will Save Your Soul”. This is the one time that I went for the lyrics as well as the title because the lyrics were so appropriate to what I was feeling by the time I got around to writing this entry. I will usually go with just the song title although I do check the lyrics when I find a song unknown to either Kim or I to make sure I’m not referencing anything questionable...questionable according to my standards, that is.)
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Up early for how late we went
to bed. Out the door by 9:30 am. Let the body clock adjustment to changing
time zones begin.
It was a brisk 13o
when we walked out to the truck but the sun was out and the small blue cloud on
the weather map left only a dusting of snow in its wake last night. It was a good start.
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Yesterday Kim’s goal was to
see the temperature reach 40o as we headed south. Didn’t happen. It did hit the low 20’s but even that didn’t
last long. However the truck cab was oh,
so toasty because of the sun streaming in so who cared what the outside temp
was. His goal today is to get to an area
where there’s no snow as far as he could see.
He admitted that that goal may be a bit lofty given the conditions
throughout the country but goals are important and he’s sticking with it. Roads are clear of snow...that’s what’s
important to me.
Update: Although the amount of snow laying in the fields and along
the roads diminished to almost nothing as we cruised along it didn’t quite meet
Kim’s expectations. There was still some
visible snow so it has to be chalked up as another unmet goal. Sounds so negative when I put it that way.
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Travel trivia: Detroit,
Illinois is a village in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population
was 83 at the 2010 census, a decline from 93 in 2000. (Wikipedia)
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We crossed the Illinois River, the
Mississippi River and the Missouri River today.
All three had what appeared to be an open shipping lane surrounded by
ice.
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It was a day of travel. Kim had
the tedium of driving and I had the tedium of being a passenger. I knew we’d be going for miles today so I
tried to find ways to amuse myself. The sun was bright and reflecting off the
snow so looking out the window at the passing landscape was a little
problematic. I was able to do some typing on the computer for a bit but that
got a little dicey as the ride was a bit bouncy. Then I turned my sights on a tried and true
friend...Roadside America. J I looked at our projected route, looked at
the Roadside America map and started making calculations. I am ever conscious of the 25 foot trailer
behind us when making these requests so directing us to the wrong spot causes
both of us some angst. Which is what I did on the first attempt at finding the
Rhino Tombstone tucked into a cemetery in Liberty, MO...but in my defense the
address didn’t specify whether the street was East Shrader or West Shrader. I wrongly picked East Shrader which led us to
an industrial area but was eventually able to redirect us to the right
spot. Kim kept his cool through it all.
The rhino monument was erected the following May in 2005. It did and probably will always attract attention.
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The plaque on the statue's base calls China
"a great man" and "the finest custodian in the state of
Missouri" and notes that "students would walk out of their way to
give themselves a chance to speak with China and have him tell them what fine
persons they were and would become." It adds that, "by the time
China's own daughter, Ann, reached high school, the Liberty schools were
integrated. She was the first African American to be a yearbook queen."
The sculpture, by Martha Aldridge, depicts China in sunglasses, which he always wore whenever he was outside.
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We’ve done this trip
enough times that we’re familiar with the basic routes. But in our efforts to avoid the winter storm
bubbling up from Texas and Oklahoma we changed things up a bit this time. Today’s route was a mixture of familiar and
unfamiliar roads. Hence we unexpectedly found ourselves on the Kansas Turnpike
as we angled down to Wichita from Topeka, KS.
Never been on that road before...if we had I would have remembered it as
a toll road and done my best to avoid it.
When we unexpectedly found ourselves at a ticket booth the only thing to do was grab a ticket and drive on. I studied the ticket but couldn’t make sense of what we’d have to pay when it came time to exit the Turnpike; however I could see that it was going to be more than a few coins tossed into a basket. “Oh, great! We have more than 2 axles but less than 5 and I don’t know exactly where we have to get off so it looks like we might have to pay between $18 and $40 for this little joy ride.”
It was a good road just not highly travelled today. We figured the regulars probably knew to avoid the toll roads. Anyway as we got close to exiting the Turnpike to find our hotel I grabbed enough money to cover the highest amount but was hoping to get some change back. I was somewhat dismayed to realize that the exit had a ‘cashless tollbooth’, meaning I maybe had this conversation out loud with myself: “Oh, great! Did you see what that sign said? We’re responsible for going online to pay the toll. What the hell! First of all, I have to remember to do it and then second, how am I supposed to know how much to pay? We're from out of town...I don’t know where we got on or off this stupid road. And how will the Kansas Turnpike Authority know where we’ve been? And by the way, it also said it has to be paid within 10 days or there'll be a penalty. Would it really be so difficult to employ someone to actually take the money at the point of getting off the highway? This is ridiculous!!”
When we unexpectedly found ourselves at a ticket booth the only thing to do was grab a ticket and drive on. I studied the ticket but couldn’t make sense of what we’d have to pay when it came time to exit the Turnpike; however I could see that it was going to be more than a few coins tossed into a basket. “Oh, great! We have more than 2 axles but less than 5 and I don’t know exactly where we have to get off so it looks like we might have to pay between $18 and $40 for this little joy ride.”
It was a good road just not highly travelled today. We figured the regulars probably knew to avoid the toll roads. Anyway as we got close to exiting the Turnpike to find our hotel I grabbed enough money to cover the highest amount but was hoping to get some change back. I was somewhat dismayed to realize that the exit had a ‘cashless tollbooth’, meaning I maybe had this conversation out loud with myself: “Oh, great! Did you see what that sign said? We’re responsible for going online to pay the toll. What the hell! First of all, I have to remember to do it and then second, how am I supposed to know how much to pay? We're from out of town...I don’t know where we got on or off this stupid road. And how will the Kansas Turnpike Authority know where we’ve been? And by the way, it also said it has to be paid within 10 days or there'll be a penalty. Would it really be so difficult to employ someone to actually take the money at the point of getting off the highway? This is ridiculous!!”
It’s fair to say that if I were Santa Claus the Kansas Turnpike Authority would have to do a lot of public service work to get off my naughty list.
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Stopped in Wichita,
KS, for the night. Another cheap Red
Roof Inn night since the weather is still on the cool side of comfortable. I’ll deal with finding out how to pay the
toll in the morning. Bah!!
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| Today's route...Feb. 18 |
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