We left this morning at 7:15 am – only 15 minutes behind schedule. Being a Monday morning, we dealt with a little Cincinnati rush-hour traffic, but it wasn’t too bad. Our previously consulted online mapping app recommended that we go west through Cincinnati on to Indianapolis to get on I-70W, but our gut told us to overrule that recommendation and go south into Kentucky to Louisville instead. It’s a few minutes longer that way, but there is less construction and the roads are much nicer. The scenery is also quite boring between Cincinnati and Indy (sorry, Indiana). We made our way through Northern Kentucky and branched off the I-75/I-71 split to follow I-71 to Louisville. We reached Louisville around 9am with minor traffic flowing nicely. Louisville is such a nice town. We haven’t spent much time there, but what little we have, it’s been enjoyable. It appears that most of the road construction through downtown near the Yum! Center is finished. The downtown area looks sparkling and vibrant. I love the cable-stay bridge and how all of the bridges downtown are painted white – it looks so clean! (I didn’t take a picture, but I should have.)
We crossed the Ohio River into Indiana and saw the quaint little river town of New Albany along the shore. We both said we should visit there someday.
Today’s drive will be an easy one, although long. It’s all Interstate today. We started out on I-275 in Cincinnati, then I-75/I-71S, I-71S, I-64W from Louisville to St. Louis where we’ll get on I-70W all the way to Topeka, Kansas. We’ll stop there for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll follow I-70W into Colorado, up through Denver and to tomorrow’s destination of Rocky Mountain National Park just northwest of Denver.
So far along the drive this morning hubby and I have been talking about retirement and where we’d like to live. Some possibilities are coastal areas of Delaware, Virginia, Texas, or Oregon. We both agree that it will mainly depend on where our kids decide to go to college. Right now, it’s a crap-shoot. The good news is that both kids love the ocean and would like to be near the coast – we just don’t know which one. None of us want to go north, so at least we all agree on that.
Evening update: Today was a fairly easy drive – all Interstate and straight and flat through most of Missouri and Kansas with little traffic. We were told to expect lots of traffic when we get to Colorado. We crossed into Missouri over the Mississippi River through St. Louis and saw the Gateway Arch, then crossed all the way through Missouri to Kansas City. We didn’t realize that the Royals stadium is in Missouri.
While we were on the road, I decided to begin marking off our National Part T-shirts. I colored in the boxes for each park that we've already visited. By the end of this trip, we'll have lots more colored in! Once we were in Kansas, the outdoor temperature started rising. By the time we stopped in Salina it was 100-degrees.
We drove through Kansas City, Lawrence (don’t tell anyone, but we gave a not-so-nice salute to the KU Jayhawk sign), Topeka, Manhattan, and the Fort Riley Army base. Instead of stopping in Topeka as planned, we decided to continue on for another hour and a half or so, since we were making good time and it was still before 5 pm.
We stopped at a KOA in Salina that had a pool, decent wifi and a cheap nightly rate. We had a quick dinner (grilled chicken breast that I pre-cooked at home and a Caesar salad), then a quick swim. While walking around the Wizard of Oz themed campground before hitting the pool, hubby was excited to take a selfie with the Tin Man. (was that really my husband?) At the pool, we met a 17-year old boy from Colorado that chatted us up. He was traveling with his grandparents.
After our swim we took showers in the shower house, and then walked around the campground looking at all of the different RVs. Now we’re getting ready for bed, working on posting this blog entry and uploading the day’s photos. Tomorrow, we’ll be heading out early for Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. That’s all for now. I’ll update you with any more interesting happenings from the road as they occur tomorrow! Good night and Be a traveler, not a tourist!
