The girls left Wichita about 6:15 Wednesday morning and I pulled out about 10 minutes later. They were able to drive 75 MPH most of the way to Kansas City so they were at least 40-50 miles ahead of me by then and they missed the freezing rain and sleet that I was blessed to drive through. I must have hit it just right. It was bad for about 60 miles on me.
I noticed the rain hitting the windshield had turned solid about the same time I started noticing cars and trucks all over the median and sides of the interstate. Some had slid off the road, some had hit the guard rail, some had hit each other, some had turned over and some had done all of the above. I slowed way down and stayed off the brake as much as possible.
Once I cleared all of that about 30 miles east of Kansas City it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way to St. Louis. I hit the suburbs about the beginning of rush hour and only a few were rushing as they were weaving in and out of traffic. The rest of us crawled through.
I stopped right about there at a Quick Trip Truck Stop that we used to always stop at when driving back and forth between Wichita and Ohio. I normally would have waited about 300 more miles to fill up but diesel in Illinois was 3.69 and diesel at Quick Trip in Missouri was 3.19. That's 50 cents a gallon or a savings of $56.55. We paid $3.79 a gallon for our last fill up. 115 gallons at that price would have been $68 more than we paid today.
It pays to pay attention to the prices.
I was feeling pretty good on the west side of St. Louis where I stopped for fuel. By the time I had cleared the city traffic and then endured a few construction zones in Illinois, I was ready to stop. I pushed on to the Flying J at Effingham, Illinois and parked for the night.
537 miles is pretty good for me in the bus now days.
Kelly Jo and Odie made it all the way home. They can drive faster than I can pulling this U-haul trailer and it is easier in the car anyway. They pressed on because Kelly Jo's Dad is scheduled for a heart cath today and she wanted to be there. I am glad they made it.
I stayed at Flying J about seven hours but only slept about 90 fitful minutes. After I realized that was all the sleep I was going to get I decided to drive a little farther.
I went outside and emptied the holding tanks and hit the road. The roads were clear, the weather was good and I made it into Dodds church about 5:35 AM eastern time. It was 277 more miles.
I am laying down to sleep until Kelly Jo calls me and brings the key to the barn. Then I will pull over there and park the BoggsMobile in the barn for the first time.
Thanks for reading.
Davy
