Day 6 - Route 66

It turns out that the state park system doesn't have the internet! how primitive :) So, my updates will not be on a daily basis, as I'd anticipated, but more random - depending on www access.

So, traveling this past week has brought up several surprises for me. First, I'd forgotten how much work camping is! It's taking me up to two hours to set-up camp (which I expect I'll become more and more proficient at as time goes on), and usually it's in HEAT - which just is terribly uncomfortable. However, once things are set up I get pretty comfortable with a fan and bug spray and all kinds of interesting things to do/see. Breaking camp takes about an hour and is usually in early am, so the heat hasn't hit yet.

Another surprise is the amount of attention that I need to pay to my driving. Route 66 is not an unbroken route - you have to go on all kinds of twists and turns. Illinois has excellent signage for Historic Route 66, but not so Missouri! Let's just say, it is terribly easy to take a wrong turn and go visiting somewhere else *lol* -- and, as you all know, going off track is not something I need any further encouragement to do. So, anyway, my idea that I could "mull over" the articles I've read as I'm driving is not going to work on Route 66. Keeping track of the road and managing to keep the directions in my brain is all I can manage.

A third *enlightenment* is that I really can't afford the time to stop at everything that catches my attention! I did that the first 2 days and there's no way I could keep it up and still be in LA in 3 weeks. *lol*

Finally, I have not seen a single rest stop along the route. Obviously there are some on the major freeways, but not on Route 66. Still, there are places to pull over and read/double-check my directions or whatnot. Just no place to pee. Important to be able to find places to do that, you know - especially when drinking as much as I am because of the heat.

I did stop yesterday at "pull off place" where some house/building had burnt down and ate my lunch looking over the rubble. In the meantime, a dog came to visit. He had a collar on, so he must have belonged to someone somewhere nearby.

Meanwhile, a turkey eagle (more pretty than the name implies) nearly dove into my windshield - I had to stomp on the brakes to miss it, and there was a turtle walking the road, and the usual stray cats and squirrels cheking to see if I were paying attention.

The scenery is mainly pretty, but sometimes too distracting and I've scolded myself to either scene gaze *or* drive, but not both.

I've been meeting some really nice people, but this is really a solitary business driving The Route. So, please leave me comments!

So, I'm hitting the road again....