Driving

We are looking at about a 10 hour drive today into Omaha, NE.  Before leaving the area, we still had to stop in Metropolis to see Superman and take a photo with masks on.  What a strange time we are living.  We also perused some beautiful antique automobile while their owners visited under a shade tree on the square and purchase some local cucumber and tomato for lunch.   

 

We just passed the gateway to the west and across a great bridge over the mighty Mississippi, after another great lunch stop south of St. Louis.  A big part our road trips is the music and memory discussions.  We talked some about our favorite trips of the past which helped us start looking forward to the adventures and memories we will make on this trip.   

 

When you have a long day of driving, the most important part of the day can be about the food.  Instead of driving straight across the state to Kansas City, we drove north from Columbia on Hwy 63 and then west on Hwy 36.  Most of the drive was a four lane highway cut through the corn fields that must be near harvest because it’s so tall.  There are lots of rolling hills.   When we started to look for food again, we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  The closest town was called Hamilton and yelp only really showed us one restaurant and a brewery.  When we stopped it was such a pleasant surprise.  We ate at J’s Burger Dive and the burgers were outstanding!  We discovered that James Cash Penny, founder of JC Penney, had lived in the town.  For Nanannette, the Missouri Star Quilt Co.   The town murals were amazing!  

   

The norther part of Missouri is a pretty different landscape.  It’s still crops but there are more rolling hills, some rock outcrops and beautiful homesteads.  As we drove into the setting sun John spotted a crop duster working in the sunset. That was a lot of fun.  The hills to the right with their peeks and valley’s look like miniature mountain ranges.  There was a wide enough path along those hills that about half way up, a row of cows were marching toward some unknown destination.  The conversations from the back catch our attention occasionally when all is still and everyone cracks up.