We drove from southern Indiana, stopping in the town of New Harmony for breakfast at the Main Deli. One of my best friends grew up here, and so of course given this chance to drive to all of these new places, we stopped by to see the town. Oddly enough, the people there really tended to look like my friend. And the food was excellent. Then off through southern Illinois, where the difference between travelling back in the day and with a GPS and cell phone became obvious, as I hadn't picked up on the fact that we were going to be driving in Illinois at all until the moment that we drove up the ramp on a gorgeous old steel bridge saying "Welcome to Illinois!" on it. We also were suprised to discover that Illinois is very very flat and has oil fields. We kept driving by these things that looked exactly like oil pumps that you see in the movies, but I kept spinning these theories about how they were water pumps for irrigation or something when we drove by a "Oil Field and Oil Equipment" store in one of the small towns.
We made it to St. Louis by 2 pm, with a plan to stay till 4 pm, and had a great time looking at the very impressive monument for the Gateway to the West. It turns out that the Gateway to the West was this 1880s era bridge that had 2 train tracks (so there was no turn taking for East to West and West to East trains) and a highway without a toll. The Arch was built around 1950 to celebrate what was already history. But it's a beautiful object, and larger than the Washington monument. My beloved life partner and I say that they had horse carriages and decided that if the kids asked for a ride, we'd say, "Well, hmm, ok, I guess we can do that," but not bring up the prospect. My daughter asked and we parents were able to implement our plan. One of the few things that's going smoothly. We couldn't even get lunch in St. Louis as easily as it seems like that would be possible. I had to suspend being vegetarian in favor of being adequately nourished, and truth be told I enjoy the ham and cheese sandwiches even when I do thank the pig for its life.
My morning again started with a pleasant mix of zazen, coffee and a bath.
Missouri turns out to be a happpening state; it is more developed and more trafficky than we've seen since leaving Mary land. It also is quite a lot hillier than Illinois or Indiana. We are now on the edge of the Ozarks, and it's quite steep rolling hills.
We arrived tonight at my aunt and uncle's house in the town that my father and grandmother grew up in, and which I've been to many times before, so for the first time since Hagerstown I'm somewhere I've been before. We aren't going to drive at all tomorrow and will visit with cousins tomorrow night and then get off Friday morning for the remaining 22 hundred miles.
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