We woke up at 5:00 this morning...wondering who in the heck signed us up for this!!?? (I know, Mary R--you told me to sleep in and leave at nine, and exactly where were you when the alarm went off??) We checked email first thing and found that many of you have already posted on the blog and we thank you very much for doing so as it makes writing this bog ten times more fun. NOW we were ready to get up and face the day! I took a picture of Mufasa from the kitchen window and decided that he looked like he was ready to get on the road.

It was 53 degrees on the thermometer in the back of the house this morning which was wonderful compared to the hot and humid weather we have had here for the past several days . In fact, it was cool enough that John had to recalibrate the air pressure in Mufasa's tires because it was so warm when he did them yesterday afternoon. After loading on a few last minute items, we were ready to head out at 7:00 into an absolutely gorgeous morning--clear skies, cool, and low humidity. It just doesn't get any better than that. Our starting milage was 59,060.
 
Chickie (our new GPS) did us a favor right off the bat by detouring us to Briley Parkway so that we avoided the parking lot that I-40 was becoming ahead of us. On the way to Clarksville (where we stopped for a sausage biscuit) we saw our first example of road kill (you can tell from how this excited us that it has been awhile since we have been on the road!) which was a deer. The exciting part of this was that there was a big flock of buzzards having breakfast--we stopped at McDonald's anyway!
 
By 8:50 we crossed the border into Kentucky. It was 70 degrees at that point and still a gorgeous day. By the way, adding to the road kill list, we saw several raccoons and (we think) a dead armadillo! Does anyone know if that is possible? ARE there armadillos in Kentucky? Inquiring minds want to know . Oldcat should know since he is the guru of all things Kentucky.
 
We got off I-24 above Paducah at 10:15 and hope to stay off of interstates as much as possible on the rest of our trip. We really do like riding the "black roads" through all the little towns and past farms and fields. We crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri at 11:20. At that point we were into delta. We think some of the fields that we saw were rice and have decided that it should be a federal law that all crops along public roads should be labeled for us non-farmers. Just saying. We stopped in Charleston, MO and took on fuel at $3.29/Gallon. Using our Flying J card we got a 3 cent per gallon discount...I know you are proud of that Judy! We averaged 10+ MPG so far today. 
 
Paying attention to the advice of Jeanne and crew, we stopped at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, MO. Again Judy--you should have been there. John did another amazing back up job in the parking lot there. He went in between several buses and larger RV's to put The Big Muf into a slot perfectly . I know you are not surprised.
 
Now about Lambert's: It was established in 1942 (two years before I was born, so really, it hasn't been there long at all...wink, wink). They are famous for their "throwed" rolls. This custom started in 1976 when the owner (according to their brochure) would try to pass out hot rolls in the traditional manner by asking politely if you would like a hot roll. When it was busy one day, this took more time than he was willing to spend and so when a frustrated customer said to just throw him the **** roll! He did, and the rest is history.
 
Between their three operations, they average baking 520 dozen rolls per day for a grand yearly total of 2,246,400 individual rolls. They are 5 inches in diameter and they are delicious, "throwed" or not! They have fried okra at every meal and last year they cooked and fried 61,200 lbs. of Arkansas okra. Last year they served 40,800 lbs of white beans, 13,107 gallons of slaw, 476,136 gallons of coffee, 40,392 gallons of tea, and 107,250 servings of jelly along with 21,600 44oz cans of sorghum molasses! Whew! The food was great and the atmosphere was a lot of fun . I took several pictures and I hope that those of you who have not been there will enjoy seeing them. It was a real cultural experience. Thanks Jeanne (I think)! We are having soup tonight by the way!
 
As we traveled onward the topography was much flatter. We saw several planes spraying crops which was kind of neat. We also (for a change from our road kill counting) saw a little guy who looked to be about 12 years old driving down the road on a go cart...with an 18 wheeler behind him!! Hope he made it home OK! US 60 was a beautiful road in MO...except...
 
...Jacob, we REALLY needed a copy of your sermon on Patience from your Fruits of the Spirit sermon series as we BADLY needed a little dose for awhile this afternoon. Close to Poplar Bluff, MO we somehow did not take a turn. We discovered this when I saw several signs saying US 67. I asked if we were still on 60 and John, joking said, "Sure, there is the road sign saying 60." He was joking about the speed limit sign but since Chickie's voice had been turned off we didn't hear her gently advise us that we were going totally in the wrong direction (towards Little Rock) and it would behoove us to turn around. By the time the light dawned...well, as I say, a little bit of Patience (and probably a whole lot of generosity of spirit) would have been most welcome. We lost 50 minutes but, hey, we got to see a Menard's store twice so how could we complain? By the way, Chickie's voice is now audible!
 
We are stopped for the night at 4:00 in Van Buren, MO at Big Spring RV Campground along the Current River. We are level, the power is very good, the temperature is in the mid 70's and the humidity is low. We drove 340 miles today...including the 35 that was a mistake. Just saying. Maybe I am OK with the Patience thing right now.