Roadtrip!

OK, I'm sitting here in the motel room in St Louis. I've had a good dinner at a local bar and restaurant, a whiskey and a cigar. Vicki and I have talked three times today on the phone. I called her when I stopped for lunch in Gordonsville, Tennessee, 324 miles from Hickory.

During this stretch I averaged 36 miles a gallon through mountains at over 70mph and sometimes quite a bit faster in the fun parts. I love curves and so does my little car. It was a blast in the mountains. You get to see some dumb stuff on the interstate. It's nice to know I'm not the dumbest driver on the road. I had a lady pull over in front of me for no reason. We were in the middle of nowhere and she just changed lanes. Amazing! Then of course there were the serial tailgaters. These I either left in the dust or got out of their way, according to my mood and the road. Generally the curvier the road the more I left them behind.

Coming in to St Louis you can see the Gateway Arch from a long ways away. I will be going to school in the vicinity of the Arch and will post a picture sometime this week. After lunch in Gordonsville I didn't stop till I was on the west side of St Louis, looking for my motel. It took a bit to find it, but the room is great, the place clean and way less than staying downtown. In addition it is just a few blocks from Westport Plaza, a place filled with restaurants. I have many options for dinners this week.

Getting into downtown St Louis will be interesting. I'm told the commute could be as much as an hour. This is due to 64/40 being closed for construction on this side of town. I'll leave early in the morning to get into the city for my school.

For all you frugal Freddies out there, check this out. At my first gas stop I filled up with 9 gallons and when I got into St Louie I filled up again, this time with 10.4 gallons. Total for 687.5 miles; 19.4 gallons. The average mpg for the trip here was 35.43. Makes me feel like I made the right choice with this car. Only problem I had on the way here was shifting from 5th to 4th. There is no reverse lockout and if you're not careful you grind a little if you miss 4th. It happened to me a couple of times till I figured out what I was doing wrong and corrected it.

Of course the real fun in driving is the jams, the road and the feel. I started with the new Eagles double album. Then a little Prairie Home companion on a station I was passing. Then some "Fatburger" ( a jazz group). After that another jazz artist, then the Eagles greatest hits, some Suzie Boggus, an old Basia CD, a switch to Montgomery Gentry, Nickel Creek, and then the Doobies greatest hits. The tunes just seemed to flow and the road rolled up like a carpet. Sometimes I just fell in line with folks going pretty quick and away we went. As long as you leave enough space, don't tailgate, and keep alert for the highway patrol you can make good time and still be safe.

Well, that's it from St Louie.

The Daily Husband