Update from the middle of America

Literally. We're in Rolla, Missouri. Take a look at a map of the US and you'll see it's pretty close to the center.

It's also very close to where we stayed last night, St. Louis.

Now that might be fine, if, for example, we had a ton of activities in St. Louis, and then maybe did some other ones along the way. But that's not what happened. My oldest son got sick; like a flu with a high fever. So we were just able to get out of the hotel this morning by noon. Then we did the following routein:

1. Drove for a while.
2. Stop to go to the bathroom.
3. Repeat.

He was really feeling sick, so at the last stop, a Steak and Shake (I've never actually been to one before) in Rolla, MO, I asked him if he wanted to keep going or get a hotel and sleep. He said "hotel", so I asked the waitress for a recommendation and she actually knew of a great one that was safe, nice, and reasonably priced. A few validations on the Internet and I wound up booking it through our corporate travel department for $69, and it's actually very comfortable. It's the Baymont Inn & Suites in Rolla, and includes free breakfast, which I learned this morning saves a minimum of $10 since you aren't even tempted to go to the Starbucks in the lobby, even if you have a room full of food. It probably saves more if you have no food in your room. Ah, that reminds me of a post I need to do about saving money on hotels on the road.

So we are 416 miles from our start, with 1396 more miles to go. If my oldest son is healthier tomorrow, we can hit the road reasonably early and go for a long day, since there's nothing major along the route. Regretfully we've abandoned the route I was hoping to take, which was through Memphis and then Arkansas. I'll have to visit Memphis another time. For now we're taking the most direct route, albeit with some diversions on to the old Route 66.

OK, the kids are eating pizza (delivered from Imo's and its surprisingly good). My oldest son is feeling better, so I think we're going to brave a quick Walmart trip after pizza. Then I'm going to put them to sleep, do some photo processing, charge my camera gear, and plan tomorrow's route... But first some hotel guidance... (next post)