Mitchell South Dakota

Beautiful Day today! Yesterday I got caught in some heavy rain through Tennessee. Was actually expecting more. Today it was great weather all the way.

I always get homesick driving through Missouri since I spent the first thirty eight years of my life (minus 4 years in the Navy) there. I like the rock music played in Missouri much better than what is played in Atlanta, especially KSHE in St. Louis and KCMQ in Columbia. It’s funny that I’ve driven I-70 across Missouri more now that I live in Georgia, than when I lived in Missouri. I do it at least once a year going to monoski camp at Snowmass. Back when I still lived in Missouri, I did most of my driving on I-44 (prior to that Highway 66) going to and from Lake of the Ozarks which is where I spent a lot of weekends during summers in the 70’s. I rented a cabin on the Lake and had a ski boat and I would go waterskiiing three weekends a month from May until September. Also, when we would go on canoe float trips we would drive I-44 to the places we would float like the Meramec River, Current River, or the Huzzah Creek among other streams. When I quit going to Lake of the Ozarks a friend of mine and I would go down to Lake Norfork in Southern Missouri and we’d drive I-44 there. He had a ski boat and Norfork was a better place to ski. Lake of the Ozarks has gotten really polluted over the years especially now with the growth it has experienced over the last 20 years. I hardly recognize it anymore.

I want to thank all of you who have warned me about the fires in the Northwest. I’m worried about them as well. I’m hoping they don’t affect the trip. My sister sent me a link to check on whether the Road to the Sun will be open or not. It would suck to drive out and have it closed. That would mean another trip out here.

When I wrote about going on a road trip, Ron in Ohio sent me this photo.