Thursday night we stayed in Chicago at the fabulous InterContinental (spot a theme?) and had dinner with Raymond and Nicole and their lovely children Tom and Nina. The hotel has an incredible pool in the old tower where the children quickly made some friends and lots of jumping in ensued. It was a late night but they still felt the need to be up at 6am.
The drive through Illinois started off urban, then suburban and then very, very rural. Two crops seem to be grown exclusively across the mid west - corn (or maize) and soybeans. I don't think we saw a cow until Oklahoma. Unfortunately you can see the affect of the drought - the crops in Missouri and Kansas were dry, brown and brittle. Lakes and rivers are very low in the water and there seems to be little end in sight.
We spend Friday night in Hannibal, MO - the boyhood home of Mark Twain. Obviously we skipped any cultural activities for time at the pool. Morgan and Will are getting very skilled at dragging unsuspecting children who are minding their own business into complicated games that seem to involve lots of rules and regulations (made up by Morgan) that are then constantly discussed and enforced (Will).
The drive through Missouri was somewhat uninspiring. Bends in roads are not a requirement on any of the highways we have been on this weekend. The road designers certainly got their monies worth from their rulers. Road trip bingo got a bit fraught at this point as there wasn't much of anything to spot. Eye spy and the license plate game fell by the wayside as well.
We were all a bit tired of each others company by the time we arrived at George and James' in Leawood, Kansas. So we were thrilled to have fresh conversation and see some new faces. It was 3 years since we last saw them and it was wonderful to pick up the conversation where we left off. Morgan and Will disappeared off with Louis and Lola and only reappeared for food and water. We went to the local pool where Morgan and Will were in awe of the water slide that didn't have rules and they could come down it any way they wanted. Morgan and Lola, kindly put on a show for us, and Louis played fancy Wii games while Will jumped up and down in excitement watching him. Louis is Will's new god. There were the anticipated tears on departure. Thanks George and James, we really enjoyed our visit.
Today's drive through Oklahoma has been surprisingly green, and very very flat. You could see the skylines of Tulsa and Oklahoma City from miles and miles away. We are spending the night in Ardmour, OK. Tomorrow we are off to Dallas and then Georgetown to visit Michael's uncle Alan and wife June.
Texas will be our 15th state/province since we left home, and we have done just over 2000 miles so far. And we are only just over half way across the country.
I would post more photos but it will have to wait until there is a decent internet connection and it is no longer midnight. The hotel advertises free internet - no where does it state it is fast enough to actually do anything! Good night. RP
Photo updates:
Lola and Morgan's show
Will, Louis, Morgan and Lola
Louis refused to pose with Morgan on the stairs as we were able to when they were toddlers. Lola was happy to take his place.
Will's new idol. On the drive from Kansas there was a lot of "Louis this" and "Louis that".
Sounds as if you are all doing well. The drought is still impacting things here even with some rain we got right after you left. No where as bad as what you are seeing though.Temps back up to mid 90s yesterday and 100 forcasted for today. I know you will be much hotter. Have a good driving day!
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