Road trip from Maryland to Springfield, Missouri
/I started out on another road trip last week…heading to my daughter’s house in Missouri and then, after a few days, continuing to Dallas, Texas for a family wedding celebration. This post is about the first part of the road trip. The trip was planned shortly after I got back from the last one….before the dramatic uptick in the COVID-19 cases in southwest Missouri due to the delta variant. As I started out – I realized that I felt less secure on this road trip than the one I made in April/May. During the previous trip, the cases were beginning to trend downward across the country and the number of vaccines per day was high. I anticipated by July that many areas of the country would have enough people vaccinated to have very low numbers of cases and instead things have gone in a different direction – a drop off in people getting vaccinated and the delta variant becoming the dominate strain in the pandemic. And very few people are still wearing masks anymore! On this road trip, I am avoiding indoor spaces when I can – and wearing a mask otherwise. That meant I took my food with me for the road…and put on a mask when I went into the rest stop buildings. Until I got to Missouri – I was about the only person I saw wearing a mask. In Missouri, more people were wearing masks at the rest stops…but not everyone. The news about what is happening with the delta variant is beginning to get out to the general population – hopefully.
It stopped at almost all the rest stops along the way. At the very first stop – South Mountain – a trucker that arrived at the vending machines about the same time as I did, bought my soft drink before I could get my credit card out! His generosity and the pleasant conversation for a few minutes brightened my perspective for the rest of the trip. It also was wonderful to see a pollinator garden and a tiger swallowtail.
The next stop was Sideling Hill – still in Maryland. I noted that the periodic cicada damage was still evident on some the trees. The big road cut is always impressive; I took a picture from the building walkway and then from the parking lot – waiting for a truck to go by to get a size comparison.
Then there were 4 stops in West Virginia. The state had turned off the hand dryers in the rest stops and filled the paper towel dispensers. I enjoyed the drive through the state – clean rest stops, highway in good condition, light traffic, curvy and scenic. The most interesting rest stop was one with sunflowers (not blooming yet). Most of them were short enough that I could look down in the center of the plant where the flower bud was beginning to form; there was one very tall plant that had grown through an open area of the building overhang!
I had one rest stop in Kentucky before I got to the hotel near Frankfort, Kentucky. It looked like the thunderstorms in the forecast were going to happen for that last hour of the drive…but it just looked threatening. Only a light rain came down…no lightning or thunder.
The next morning, I was away from the hotel by 6:30 AM. The cloud cover did not make for a pretty sunrise.
The next stops were in Indiana…and the time shifted to CDT. I stopped at a McDonald’s (needed a rest stop) but then highway rest stops. I bought gas but didn’t used that as a rest stop. I finished eating the carrots and grapes I had packed to eat as I drove.
The route through Illinois is short…only one rest stop…a Welcome Center. And then the bridge over the Mississippi River in view of the arch at St. Louis (no pictures while I’m driving!).
The clouds looked ominous again as I drove through Missouri. There was more traffic (trucks, pickups pulling trailers) because I had joined I-70. The second stop had a Route 66 theme with pay phones (not functioning) as part of the display.
I made good time and was out my daughters by 2:30 PM and unloading my car. I unloaded the fragile household items (like larger framed pictures) to store her basement until my husband and I move to the area. I waiting until the next day to clean up all the packing material…fold it neatly to use for another load the next time my make the trek between Maryland and Missouri.
