Meet me in St Louis

Den says Louis, Lou says "Lewis" 

We both say that was a bit of a scary drive, with Lou navigating 10miles of mega storm at the edges of a tornado front, on a motorway, surrounded by trucks. There were points when the rain, wind and spray was so bad that you were pretty much driving blind. You couldn't stop, cos visibility was so bad. 

Needless to say, 2 large tequilas have been consumed this evening. 

So, the day started with a final morning coffee in the rocking-chair on the porch, with a slightly misty-eyed departure from the South. 

We drove 400 miles mostly on H61, but it occasionally disappears into the interstate, obeying the motorway signs to "Buckle up y'all, it's the law".

We drove parts of Mississippi-Tennessee-Arkansas-Missouri today

Passed towns that humoured Den 

Booed the Monsanto factory (though we're sure DEET is a bi-product of the industry) and stopped at a gas station to use rest room

but apparently you can keep your full bladder too, as the public were barred from using it. Way to call out the bad payers too:

We reached St Louis in time for tea. There aren't many pics, as the journey included a lot of uber concentration due to weather, confusing H61 vanishings and 7 lane motorways. 

The air bnb place is great, staying with 2 PhD students in the trendy middle-class area by the massive park. Day off from driving tomorrow, so doing some Chuck Berry appreciation before 2 more days and 700miles of driving to Duluth, Minnesota. 

One thing we've noticed on our travels, are the large amount of random cemetaries with 10-20 graves and no obvious boundaries. We're thinking they are family plots, as often near a few houses in isolated areas. 

The spotting of wildlife continues, mostly as road kill, including our first deer, that Den lovingly described as "The only deer we see and it had no arse". Correct in description, but hardly an Attenborough moment. We also entertained ourselves with guessing the identity of a mammal as possumbly a possum. 

What? It was a long drive!! 

Being Sunday, the radio was full of excellent gospel music and we particularly enjoyed the suggestion to "Get this praise party started". And according to the roadside signs, "Jesus is a gift, self-assembley required".

H61 is also marked as the Great River Road and when at a more relaxing part of the journey, the road was parallel with the train tracks and the Mississipi. You don't see much of the river, due to the levees, but further north we run alongside or up on the bluffs. The landscape has changed from flat plains and corn and cotton, to undulating wheat fields. 

Today we agreed that we are at saturation point with everything we see and do and may need to hide in a dark non-stimulating room for a week. Don't ask us how it is, we can only say awesome!

Awesome: Getting here. Laundry drying on back seat. 

Banjo: Bonkers weather. 

Diner: Buffalo wings, pizza

Co-pilot: Although the scale goes to 10, Lou goes to 11 for her storm battling. Den goes to 10 for seven lane navigation and suffering Lou's "mind that car" interference. 

Mozzies: Apparently they cross borders.