We didn't plan our route. We put the destination in the GPS navigator on
the computer. From there, we followed the force. It picked a route we'd
never driven before. All the way east into Illinois before we turned south
to get to Florida. We trusted it to get us through Saint Louis. Difficult
highway changes, but it worked flawlessly. It guided us through Illinois to
Western Kentucky and on to Tennessee. South through Nashville required a
few turns as well. It worked.
Western Illinois looked a lot like Louisiana. Flat and wet. Looking
through the forest along the road, the trees are all in standing water.
Water where water isn't supposed to be. There are crossings for the smaller
rivers, but we can't see them. We can't tell where the rivers begin and
end. It all looks the same. Until we get to the big rivers.
The big rivers are really big. Wide and flat like a lake. I have to wonder
how they get any flow at all. We have an elevation of three hundred feet
here. We're still seven hundred miles from the Gulf. A one foot drop every
two miles? That's a lake. That's the everglades! How do you have a river
that doesn't drop?
Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee. Flat Stanley crossed the Missouri
River, the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland, all in
one day. Big rivers. We particularly like the Cumberland River. When Judy
and I were first married and we lived in Tennessee, we were close to the
Cumberland River. It is such a winding river. It didn't matter which
direction we drove, we always ended up crossing the Cumberland.
We did the slow crawl through Illinois. Illinois has a speed limit of
sixty-five on the freeways, but they make an exception for trucks and
motorhomes. Fifty-five. Being comfortable with seventy-five on the open
roads, fifty-five feels like a crawl. But the trucks were all being careful
with the speed limit, so they must take it seriously in Illinois. We picked
a truck to follow and drove slow all the way through.
Next day, Alabama and Florida.
