We got on the road again in Saint Louis. We had been driving three days now. Beginning in Phoenix AZ we made a big push to our cross country journey the first day by making it to Amarillo, TX in the first stretch. Driving through AZ and New Mexico is very beautiful. The deserts, elevation changes to mountains and forests and back to deserts. Landscapes of golden tans, browns and red to lush forests of green. Once past New Mexico the land flattens out and into the panhandle of Texas we head. The land is flat, hardly a hill in any direction and the road lays out before us like an endless ribbon. The 8 to 10 hours of crossing the panhandle is challenging due to the uninteresting landscape.
Leaving Amarillo, Texas early one morning we planned to make it to Saint Louis, Missouri by the next evening. The day was clear some spotty clouds so driving should be good. Leaving TX we headed in to Oklahoma. At Oklahoma City we picked up the Will Rogers express way to Tulsa. Followed the signs to Joplin, MO and headed across Missouri to Saint Louis. Wanting to make it across the country in good time so we would have more time with our family once we got to Columbus, OH.
Making it to Saint Louis, MO in the time we expected we had no worries we would make our Columbus luxury hotel on the day we had reserved and no need to call ahead and change the reservation. We got on the road again the next morning in Saint Louis and it was pouring rain. Our initial concern was that if we were to encounter rain this hard for much of the day we would certainly not make it to Columbus, OH by this evening. Fortunately we did only encounter the hard pouring rains for about an hour. Most of the rest of the day was little to no rain so we were able to cover the ground expected and make it to Columbus, OH at our expected time.