Day 3 - Ending Location – Cheynne, WY

A. Start Location – St. Joseph, MO

B. Goal – Big Springs, NE

C. Actual – Cheynne, WY

     Last night I discovered that the infamous outlaw Jesse James was shot and killed in St. Joseph, MO. The house where he was shot has been turned into a museum and since I had some extra time I decide to swing by and see Jesse James’s house. I was not able to tour the museum because it doesn’t open until 10:00 a.m. and I didn’t could afford to wait for it to open and still make my driving goals with daylight left. But here is a picture from the outside.

     After the quick stop at the museum I was on my way. When I planned my route across country, I didn’t realize that I would be driving though Iowa until I saw the sign that said welcome to Iowa. About 10 mins. later I passed the welcome to Nebraska sign. About a mile later, I spied a sign for a Lewis and Clark Visitor Center. I decided that I had time and went for a visit. It was a small but interesting museum. The guy behind the counter thought it was interesting that I handed him my UF college ID but signed the ledger with my home as Knoxville, TN.  The picture below is a replica of the keel boat used by Lewis and Clark.

     After the museum it was just at lot of rolling hills and beautiful but empty landscape until I got to the western part of Nebraska that borders Colorado. Once I got close to Colorado, I started seeing larger hills and some rock cliffs.

     Overall, the driving was good I only drove 9 hours today with about 7 hours on the agenda for tomorrow. The wind was less of a consistent issue today; however the road contentious were worse. They were worse in the sense that the road was not smooth and this meant that my car would make funny noises due to the road. At one point I got on the interstate and was going to get off at the next exit to figure out what was causing the loud funny noise, but it stopped right after the road surface changed.

Yesterday, I posted the cop count, here is the updated list:

Kentucky - 5
Indiana - 6
Illinois - 0
Missouri – 7
Iowa – 1
Nebraska – 3
Wyoming – 0

Day 2 - Ending Location – St Joseph, MO

A. Start Location – Berea, Ky
B. Goal – Sweet Springs, MO
C. Actual – St. Joseph, MO
     Today was a long day. I drove just over 11 hours for Berea, KY to St Joseph, MO. My day was supposed to be Berea, KY to Sweet Springs, MO, and 9 hours of driving.
     It summer vacation and I am still getting up before 10:00 a.m. Though it didn’t help that Haleigh had class at 8 something, so I got up with her and left just before her class started. I made really good time until right before Lexington, KY. Everything was going great until someone ahead of my slammed on their breaks and brought both lanes of traffic to a screeching halt. Thankfully, I had left plenty of following room and was able to stop safely. I look-up into my rear view mirror and the guy behind me is looking scared and looks like he is going to rear-end me. As I was watching him try to stop all I could think about was “not my new car” and “please don’t hit me I have barely gotten to use it.” By some act of God, I wasn’t rear-ended. Looking back, I should have been less worried about my car and more worried about how I was getting to my job if my car got wrecked. But I was fine and so was my car so everything was good until I entered Indiana. Once in Indiana, the wind picked up with gust that could push my car around. It was kind of scary getting knocked about and watching the tractor trailers get battered around too.
     St. Louis, MO was a disappointment. I wanted to stop and take pictures of the St. Louis Arch from across the river, but there was no were to pull off or an exit that a sign pointing to a observation deck, so I didn’t get any pictures. After, St. Louis, the driving nice, except for the wind gusts and the dark ominous sky, though it never did storm.

Another intresting thing I found was the cop count in each state:
Kentucky - 5
Indiana - 6
Illinois - 0
Missouri - 5