After our beautiful evening in western Nebraska we were ready to head out and at least get into Missouri the next evening. Our trip across Nebraska on I-80 was nice and uneventful, until we got into eastern Nebraska and we narrowly missed some pretty major pop up storms. We weren't too worried about it though, thinking we had left them behind us and that they would go north instead of following us east. And then about 30 NOAA and various university Storm Chasers got on the highway with us for about 20 miles! Talk about nerve racking!
We were thinking "come on guys, the storm is behind us. Go west!!" So it was a great relief when they finally exited the freeway. Even then we thought we were going to be ok and miss the storms. But then we got off I-80 and eventually onto 29 (via 77 and 2) and the sidewind became a headwind and there was no hope. We were about 20 minutes into Missouri when we decided to stop at the Rockport KOA. The headwind was killer, the very scary storm was riding our bumper, and we were beat. We had just gotten set up and Joe had just put chicken on the grill when it hit. We saw the cloud of dust before the wind actually hit us and we saw the rain before it hit too. Which was kind of cool, but a little scary too! We were under a severe thunderstorm watch, a flash flood watch, and a tornado warning from about 4:00 pm until 2:00 am. It was AWFUL!! You think those storms are scary in a house, it is nothing compared to sitting through it in a fifth-wheel! The wind just shook the trailer because it was going under it and buffeting it from the sides and the rain was super loud on our sky lights. Everyone was pretty scared--except maybe Joe who held it together the best (I was a reduced to a bundle of nerves that was barely able to eat dinner). And then the hail hit and I thought for sure it was going to come through the slides or break the windshield on the truck or something it was that loud. It was awful! Both dogs were clingy, shivery, and very scared, but that was good because comforting them gave me something to do rather than think about what kind of damage a tornado would do. Needless to say, we survived the night with no damage and were on the road bright and early the next morning, eager to be away from that terrifying experience. It was kind of funny actually that such a severe storm would hit just as we got into Missouri. I had been thinking "wow it is so beautiful here, I could see moving back" and then we were up most of the night with that storm and I wasn't so sure about moving back anymore! Leave it to Missouri to welcome you back with a full fanfare...
We made it into Kansas City during the lunch hour and were able to eat with Michelle. It was so much fun to see her and show her the fifth wheel and just catch up a little bit! It made us the much more excited to get back and spend some time with her and Cory. By the way, Panera Bread Co. is awesome! Redding needs one... We even got to stop at a Bass Pro Shops on the way out of town, yeah! Cabela's and Bass Pro, gotta love 'em! We drove by the Kansas Speedway (Joe mentioned camping in the center of the track--hmmph, we'll see) and also by the Chiefs and Royals stadiums which I guess was pretty exciting.
I would love to be able to say that the rest of our drive through Missouri was peaceful and uneventful, but unfortunately, it wasn't. Joe and I switched off a couple of hours east of Columbia on I-70 after filling up. We were about 10 miles down the road and Joe looks at me and says "We have to go back! I forgot to pay!" Great. So we head back. The particular exit this truck stop is at is not very nice. Lots of traffic, and relatively short, downhill ramps. Not so good when your trailer is about three times the size of your truck! It makes braking tricky and little vehicles just do not seem to realize that. But we made it back to the truck stop with only slightly overheated brakes, which was good. And then Joe comes back out and tells me "We didn't actually need to come back because I gave the cashier my credit card info and she just assumed we didn't want the reciept when we drove off." Ok. Well that is good. But by golly, I am not particularly eager to see that 10 mile stretch again anytime soon since I've already seen it FOUR times!
I wish that was the last eventful episode, but it gets better. We were just coming into Columbia on one of those long downhill stretches. Everyone is doing 70 mph, including me, and a semi pulls off the shoulder into my lane down at the bottom of the hill. I'm about halfway down the hill and there is no way I can brake to avoid rear ending him because of the trailer weight/speed. I can't take the shoulder because it is too narrow between him and the guardrail. I started to move over, but there was a car trying to pass me so I couldn't. I started braking pretty hard trying to slow down, but I guess I scared the driver of the car when I jerked partially over and he took the shoulder and slowed way down to let me over so I was able to get by the semi. Who pulled back over onto the shoulder about the time I passed him! And all of this happened in about a 2 second time span, maybe. Scary! I felt so bad about nearly taking out the older couple in the car (they got off on the next exit probably to recover) but I was stuck between a rock and a hard spot and I think they realized that. Happily, that is the closest we have come to having an accident on the road. We were very happy to get out of Columbia--we saw the exits for MU and Stephens by the way--and I was very happy to switch off with Joe. No way was I going to drive through St. Louis after that harrowing experience!
St. Louis was actually really easy to get through. We stopped for dinner just outside of the city and had barbecue before getting back on the road at around 7:30. We completely missed rush hour so it was a breeze to get through. Joe was excited to see the Cardinals stadium and we both enjoyed driving by the arch. Very beautiful. And then for only the second time in my life, I was in Illinois.
We were about five miles down the road, just barely out of the city and we were pulled over. We couldn't believe it! We were doing the speed limit, all our lights were working, we just could not figure out why this cop would pull the biggest vehicle on the road at this point over. It took us about a half mile to actually stop and all he wanted was to tell us that in California it is the law that a truck has to have a license plate on the front of the vehicle as well as in the back. He asked us if we realized we didn't have a front plate. We, of course, knew but having driven it for a year plus in California with no problems and having bought the vehicle with only one plate we didn't think it was a problem and told him so. I think mostly he was just curious because he asked questions like where are you going, what are you doing there, how long are you going to be there, what are you doing after that, when are you going back to California, etc. He asked for Joe's license as an after thought and didn't even ask for registration or insurance. It was odd but we didn't get a ticket or warning so I guess it was all good. Welcome to Illinois! We drove on and spent the night--Wednesday--at a rest area.
The rest of Illinois was fine. Good roads, pretty country, no traffic. But Indiana was not as nice. Their roads were a lot rougher, which was frustrating since it was my HOUSE they were bouncing to pieces but we made it through. Truckers became very frustrating in Indiana. Whereas elsewhere all the big vehicles kind of watched out for each other, in Indiana they seemed to be racing everybody else. I would pass them and then they would pass me, pull in front of me and drop their speed back to what it was when I passed them! They would also cut me off at red lights which was very annoying because of the joys of braking. Happily, we only went through a corner of Indiana and were into Kentucky and on good highways again pretty quickly.
Kentucky was nice to drive through after Indiana and it was so relieving to pull into our campsite in Bowling Green and actually set up house. We pushed all the slides out for the first time in four days (the time it took us to drive from Redding, CA to Bowling Green, KY), vacuumed, did the dishes and just turned it back into home. It was nice. 10 states later we were finally able to unhook the truck from the fifth-wheel and relax!
