Northeastern U.S.A. - Day 1

Today we departed on our annual summer trip with Carl and Marge and this year we were accompanied by good friends, Gary and Denah.  We met at the 75th Street QT in Shawnee shortly after 8:00. 

Carl & Marge

Chris & Charlie

Gary & Denah

At 8:20 we were on our way. It was cloudy and 73 degrees. We drove I-35 south, 69 Hwy south, I-435 east, I-470 east and Hwy 50 east to Tipton, MO, where we had our first break. As we were stopped I spotted Sasquatch diagonally across the intersection. I ran over to capture an image of the creature but all I got was his backside as he ran away.


Denah warned me that it was raining in and around Jefferson City so I put the top up. Sure enough it was sprinkling before we left Tipton and we ran into rain a short distance east of California, MO.

In Union, MO we enjoyed lunch at the Junie Moon Cafe on Hwy 50.


We continued east on Hwy 50 and Interstate highways into St. Louis as our GPS led us to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. It is an impressive place. It appears that some of the ceilings and other spaces are covered in sparkling gold. It is actually a mosaic of 41.5 million pieces of glass tesserae covering 83,000 square feet. It is said to be one of the largest collections of mosaics in the world. It was created by 20 different artists and contains 41.5 million pieces of the glass in 7,000 colors. Building construction started in 1907.  The mosaic of glass began in 1912 and was completed in 1988. Pope John Paul II designated the Cathedral of St. Louis a Basilica in 1997.



Interstate 64 east through St. Louis was very congested but the sun was out for awhile, which was nice. Near O'Fallon, IL we were back on Hwy 50 east with more rain. Some of it was quite heavy. Poor Carl and Marge did not have their rain suits on.

Our lodging for the night was in Salem IL. Today we traveled 350 miles and our high temperature was 82.

To see all the photos taken today click on this link: Day 1 Pics

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