Friday, May 9, 2014

The Last Day: Heading Home

Wait... what about Saint Louis?

Yeah.

We got about an hour north of Nashville and neither one of us felt much like going all the way to St. Louis anymore.  We stopped in a tiny town where we enjoyed Tennessee BBQ while we looked over our maps, and came to the mutual decision to start the drive home.  The weather in St. Louis didn't look too promising, and we were both wiped out already from driving a zillion miles and being tourists...and we were sunburned and exhausted from walking all over Nashville.

Once the decision was made we were both feeling good about heading home.  We drove out of Tennessee, through Kentucky and then stopped in Metropolis, IL to see Superman, and then got back on the road again.  There wasn't a real target destination in mind, we just drove until we were both too tired to go on.  Around 11:00 we rolled into Champaign/Urbana and called it a night.  Two cans of Monster and singing along loudly to fun classic country songs can only get one so far.

After sleeping in until a lovely, lazy 8:30, we had some breakfast and did our laundry.  The hotel boasted an outdoor pool, and it was warm enough outside to enjoy it, and checkout wasn't until noon... however, the pool wasn't yet open for the season.  We gathered all our stuff and hit the road again for the last leg of the trip.

One of the last things we did was eat at Steak n Shake.  About two hours into the drive, we stopped at our last chance Steak n Shake, the farthest one North.  We took our time, read the local paper and did the crossword, before getting back into the car.

We heard the last of the CB chatter on 39 North going into Madison, and were sad when the CB went quiet.  Tony and I both agreed that listening to the drivers was a great deal of fun, especially when they said something that helped us identify which truck they  might be in or when something was said about road conditions coming up.

There aren't a lot of songs about Wisconsin, but we did listen to Jump Around and On Wisconsin, as well as the Hamm's commercial song and a couple of polkas.

We pulled into the driveway around 6:00.  The dogs were overjoyed to see us, and demanded attention.

Today we unpacked the car, unpacked our souvenirs, put everything away and I took the car to PDQ to wash away the fantastic collection of southern bugs decorating the grill.  I'm glad we have a day of rest before going to the bar tonight, where I will enjoy a brandy old fashioned sweet made the right way.  :)

Tony in Metropolis, IL

Laurie in Metropolis, IL

  
Two of the best late night, long stretch of interstate drivin' songs EVER.

Glamorous passenger

Last chance for Steak n Shake!

When you say Wisconsin...






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