We started our final day in Hartington by going early to the café so Kathy could make us a delicious good-by breakfast then it was a 10½ hour drive to MT Vernon, IL via NE-57 & 59, US-20, I-29, I-70, & I-64. The roads were all decent to excellent with lots of improvements being made and the traffic wasn’t bad until we managed to hit St. Louis at 5pm.
The terrain really
varied from tabletop flat to pretty rolling along US-20 and we saw plenty of
crop harvesting going on as evidenced by the big cloud of dust that the
combines generated.
We spent the night in Mt Vernon, IL then got an 8am start the next day for the six-hour drive home via I-57, I-24, and I-40 which were all in decent shape. Traffic was pretty light until we got near Clarksville, TN on I-24 then it was heavy all of the way until we exited I-40 in Lenoir City, TN.
We got home about 2pm and the dogs were beyond excited to see us and we were very happy to see them. After 16 ½ hours of driving, this old man was tired and I much preferred the shorter drives going north but we were anxious to get home so we did it in two days.
It was a nice two-week
trip and we killed three of the four birds with the one stone – we ate at 17th
Street BBQ, we saw our ND land, we visited with Kathy, but we didn’t eat at the
Mt. Vernon Cracker Barrel. So what you
asked. We ate there about 25 years ago
and I hold up the service we received that evening as the best I’d ever seen in
a restaurant so I wanted to see if it was still as good. But after the 10½ hour drive, I had no
interest in going to eat so we just had pimento cheese and crackers in the hotel room –
guess we’ll never know about the service.
For sure, my already high appreciation for the American farmer has
increased a lot during this visit.
Photos can be slightly
enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.
Have a great day
and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
10/9-10/10/24 event
dates
This is another reason for a self-driving vehicle.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had such a fun trip!
ReplyDeleteYou hit St. Louis at 5:00? bless you. What a great trip and thanks for sharing the adventure with us. 10.5 hours is indeed a long drive. The dogs appreciated it.
ReplyDeleteHi Larry, These days our maximum time on the road is about 8.5 hours. Can't do 10 + comfortably any longer. Our longest one day drive is usually from Omaha to Mt. Vernon. We usually use US 36 (Northern MO) to US 61 south in order to avoid I-70. Mt. Vernon is our 'go to' stop returning from Omaha. Hampton or Drury Inn and dinner at The Frosty Mug. Sounds like you had a great trip! As for corn bread, I readily admit that I was born a Yankee and some habits are hard to break. I usually add Amish butter and honey to my slab of sweet corn bread... What can I say! Welcome home! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDelete