Fireworks and bluffs!

Long first day of travels and for the most part pretty uneventful except for the few bad drivers I ran into along the trek. Spending the night in Lincoln, NE. I thought I would have traveled through five states, but I guess even making it to downtown Kansas City I did not even cross the state line into Kansas so I only went through Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.

The Arch greeted me in St. Louis - bad picture at 70 mph.

There is a speed trap at exit 234 in St. Louis on I-70 near the airport. They had it working like clockwork. I avoided the ticket because someone passed me a few minutes earlier. Whew! I saw tons of cops until about Columbia, MO.

Western Missouri is a whole other world. Every exit had one to three fireworks stores and most were open and selling (what?). I also noticed a lot of empty billboards as well as in only 1 in 10 had something on it.

The drive up I-29 was very beautiful. It follows this hill line. I assume they are called bluffs since the road was headed to Council Bluffs, IA. I tried to search how they were formed and found this at Wikipedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Hills  It was a very interesting view all the way up.

I crossed over the Missouri River several times on my trip (3 so far?). I know when I hit Triple Divide peak that is the where the water feeds. The headwaters are not too far from there. It is interesting to think of the snow melt on those mountains flowing all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Have you ever thought about leaving your life and starting over somewhere where nobody would imagine? That place could be Lincoln, NE. I got to drive through a lot of the town and it is a neat little town, but has a big city feel in ways. I presume the University of Nebraska has a lot to do with it. You could find a new life here very easily.

Long day tomorrow. Nebraska high point and the tri-state corners (Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado). Hope to then make mid way through Wyoming.