Columbia, MO to Jackson, MS (Replaces St. Joseph to Memphis)

So let me recap the fun that was last night..

We decided to push through past Kansas City to avoid the traffic that would surely be a nightmare this morning on our way to meet Jeff in St. Louis... Had we stopped in St. Joseph like planned we would have had to get up at 4AM to make it in time. The decision landed us in Columbia as basically the farthest I could get without falling asleep (I was thinking, hey college town like Corvallis or Athens right?). We used a coupon book and found a Days Inn.. not great but not bad right? heh, wrong. It looked good at first but the room was horrible and the area was terrifying. We decided to just post the blog then go to bed since I had driven 15 or so hours and had another full day today..

I basically ended up staying awake all night because I didnt trust the place if i fell asleep, I had joked earlier today about staying awake to make sure we still had our kidneys in the morning but I am not sure how far off the truth it was! This being said, once I finally did fall asleep a massive lightning storm rolled in (though my snoring is too loud she slept like a baby with artillery shells exploding outside).. We got up at 6 and got ready and left as fast as we possibly could - 2 hours earlier than planned. This got us into St. Louis at like 9:00 at which point we found the mall where we were meeting Jeff and getting Chick-fil-A.

Thanks to Jeff's directions we made it in and out of St. Louis with absolutely no effort, I like to know where i need to be and at least there is some order to the freeways there. Because we had made it way further last night we decided to power on through to Jackson where we had found yet another Fairfield Mariott.. a great relief after last night. I was sure I was going to crash on the way, going 15 hours then 1/2hr sleep then another 15ish hours but I am here typing this blog with plenty of energy and not much caffeine in me... go figure.

The trip from St. Louis to Jackson was boring and when we got there we found our hotel... hallelujah and then got our first real BBQ food in forever.. it was a great little place called the Hickory Pit - complete with a metal pitcher of sweet tea, college baseball on TV (The super-regional that OSU got knocked out of) and good food.

We got into town with lots of time to relax and can sleep in tomorrow because we are so far ahead of schedule. Overall we are having a great time despite my lack of sleep. Katie is in love with the weather here in Mississippi - 85 degrees and humidity that makes me break a sweat by just clipping my finger nails. I partially appreciate the humidity since the -50% humidity at 7,200 feet in Laramie was even worse.

It is amazing to think that in four days we have gone over 2,500 miles and are in the deep south... Today was a good day of Sweet tea and sunny weather.

Laramie, WY to Columbia, MO

Yes, you read right. We skipped ahead to Columbia instead of stopping in St. Joseph. Nebraska was the most dull state ever (from the I-80 perspective) and Google's directions scared us a little when we left the intestate in Lincoln. They were right, they just didn't look right in real life. SO when we got to the Missouri state line (not much to see in 5 miles of Iowa either) we decided to keep going since we weren't all that tired and Kansas City would probably be a nightmare in morning rush hour. Turns out we were right that the interchanges of highways and interstates in KC are kinda complicated and as Jeff warned us, drivers aren't nice! But, we made it thru there in one piece and not too flustered. Columbia is where University of Missouri (aka Mizzou) is located so thinking of other college towns we're personally familiar with (Corvallis....Athens....) we decided it'd be a good stop. The Days Inn at Exit 124 had the best rate for what you get (wireless internet, hot breakfast, etc) but it's kinda sketchy and outdated. The mattress sinks at least 6 inches when I (Katie) sit on it. Truly, it's clean and functional....just not pleasant feeling. We definitely got spoiled by Marriott's and have learned you get what you pay for.

We plan to go ahead tomorrow and try to make it to Jackson, MS. We will be stopping in St. Louis for Chick-Fil-A.....and to see Katie's friend Jeff (just kidding, we would've stopped to see you even if you didn't have a Chick-Fil-A...it's just a nice bonus!) Then we're looking forward to some good southern BBQ in Memphis as an early dinner before cruisin' down to Jackson. This should let us get some good sleep there before going down to Bryan and Katie's in Florida. Mmmmm 2 days til I can walk on a beach! =)

For those of you with schedules and want to know how they'll be updated, we'll still be in Central time (+1 for Eastern, -2 for Pacific) taking 9 hours, 24 min to go 618 miles. This does not include stops for food, etc. Rough estimates are to leave Columbia around 8am and get breakfast. We plan to get to lunch w/ Jeff in St. Louis by 11ish. Then 6ish we'll be in Memphis for BBQ. With stops, that should put us in Jackson by 10pm.

We drove 813 miles today which pushed the car over the 10K mark just outside Kansas City. Pretty amazing =)

There wasn't much to see so most of the pictures I took were of interstate signs....and one at a rest area warning us about rattlesnakes! I'll add some tomorrow as this part of the country looks a lot more interesting!

Time to try to sleep now.