What a beautiful day to start out in.   We are on our way to West Plains, Missouri but are having trouble with the GPS.   Apparently the place is on state highway ZZ and the GPS shows it in two different places, about a hundred miles apart.  I tried googling the correct address and came up with a third address and one site that said the place was closed since 2012 due to a fire.  This is going to be fun.  LOL.

It started to rain a bit but not for long thank goodness.  Weather report was calling for thunderstorms and possible tornado in southern Missouri but it looks like it went around us.

We went over the Mississippi twice to get to Missouri.   There was a lot of flooding.  It looked like there were three or four rivers running there was so much flooding.   Some of it is fields but it is so flooded it looks like its part of the river.

We went across one bridge and I was shaking by the time we got off.   It was awful.   Apparently a barge had hit it and there was a crew working on it.   They had a section of the bridge marked off so we were sitting on the bridge waiting for the other side to go and then we could go.   The opening was so narrow I could have touched the bridge from the window. It didn’t help either that on the CB the truckers were all talking about how many times this bridge had been hit by barges and how they didnt like sitting still on the bridge in case all that weight decided to cause it to fall.   Lovely thoughts to be listening to as you cross over.   Finally got to the other side and ended up in Cairo, Illinois.  It was the saddest little town I have ever seen.   Most of the buildings were closed up, had broken windows, the houses were in shambles.   People were just walking around or sitting on stoops.   It was awful.   I wanted to scream at them to get up off their butts and do something about their community but that might not have been received quite so well.

We got on down the road and made it to shipper on time.  Found it the first time.  Yeah!   Getting a load of charcoal (20,000 pounds) to take with the clothes to Iowa.  Seems like an odd mix to throw together in the back of a truck in my opinion.   Only took about an hour to load so we are back on the road headed to Troy, Illinois.

Made it about 8 o’clock.  Pouring the rain.   Found a Pilot to stop in for the night before we go on to Maquoketa, Iowa and drop our load at Family Dollar.

DG:  That’s easy for her to say.  East Iowa.  Nearly straight north of where we are.  Then to Storm Lake, IA for some meat and all the way to Maryland.  I thought Marylanders liked crabs.  Guess they eat beef as well.  I like both.

So I’m thinking today that the police would do well to watch for “cutters”, those people who apparently like to see how close they can cut in front of a semi while traveling at a high rate of speed down the highway.  You get those people off the road and we all live better. Oh well, wishful thinking.

577 miles today in 10 hours and 14 minutes.  Not bad considering we went through a lot of small towns where I had to slow from 65 to 35.  I’m trying to travel around 57 mph as I have heard that is the optimum speed for fuel efficiency.  Sometimes it just seems soooooo sloooooowww.  But if I have plenty of time, on my clock and time to pick up, I will go at the slower speed to save fuel and in the process, save money.

We are still having fun.  Something very odd happened today somewhere in the middle of Missouri on day 56, but I have been sworn to secrecy.  That means I can’t tell you, but I hinted to add a little mystery to the blog.  Let’s just say it was very, very funny.

That’s right, we are still laughing and having a blast.  Nobody’s been killed, not even injured, on purpose.  Instead of living together before marriage I think couples ought to spend a few months in a truck, just to test their compatibility.  That would certainly let them know if they could live together in a house.

That’s all for tonight my good folks.  Good night and God bless.