Traveling East Bound...

Today the carful of kids have their eyes set on the Jefferson Expansion Memorial.  That is the St. Louis Arch to everyone else. It has been on my architectural must see list for years. But before we leave Arkansas, I want to visit The William J. Clinton Presidential Library. The library was designed by Polshek Partnership. The library was designed to cantilever over the Arkansas River. This is direct reflection of Clinton's campaign slogan of "building a bridge to the 21st century." The area was an abandoned warehouse district before the library was constructed. Located adjacent to the library is the 1899 Rock Island Railroad Bridge. It was owned by the now defunct Chicago Rock Island Pacific Railroad. After several delays due to funding--the bridge has been repurposed into a pedestrian bridge. The Clinton Library complex in an excellent example of urban renewal and is an easy exit off of I-40.

The carful of kids is back on the road and headed for St. Louis, Missouri, another new state for them. Before we head north on I-55, we decide to stop for lunch in West Memphis. On our reoccurring theme of local burger joints, we decide to try Krystal's. They are known for their small square hamburgers. The kids each had one and I had a Krystal Chik. I liked my little fried chicken sandwich that had lettuce and tomato and the size is perfect for me. The boys inhale their square hamburgers, I really don't know if they even taste them. My daughter "the tween foodie" is not impressed. But she has been known to tell us she doesn't like "cheap ranch dressing". I share the other Krystal Chik with her and she seems happy. We finish up and head north for Missouri on I-55.

We are road tripping in the middle of a Midwestern heat wave. We are from central Texas so we can handle our fair share of heat. But the Midwest has a summer secret weapon--humidity. I am rearranging our daily schedule to accommodate the 100 plus temperatures with the high humidity. We are touring any outdoor activities early in the morning and saving the indoor activities for the hotter part of the day. Another effect of the oppressive heat is afternoon thunderstorms. We were driving outside of St. Louis, Missouri and drove through a massive "red storm", named after the color of the storm on the NOAA radar. My travel companion, navigator, and road trip weather junkie has her nose in the iPhone trying to get a handle on the storm. The straight line winds are blowing my higher profile SUV all over the road. Everyone has their flashers on. There is leaf litter all over the interstate. "Man, the Midwest doesn't mess around with their thunderstorms" I comment while white knuckling the steering wheel. My best friend is using her knowledge of meteorology picked up from reading weather blogs to see if she can locate any "hooks" on the radar for possible tornadic activity. We are still driving 20 MPH at this point. We have to remind the carful of kids that Mom and Melissa are concentrating on driving and we can't talk right now. My oldest explains we are in a "red storm" and a hush falls over the back seat. I really don't know if it safer to be stopped on the shoulder of the interstate or drive slowly. I really need a faster windshield wiper setting. We make slow progress and the storm moves east. Another badge of honor on the Mamma road trip driving challenge--adverse weather related driving.

We arrive in the St. Louis area a little later than anticipated due to the inbound weather delay. (Note to reader--I used to be a Flight Attendant and I still like to use the lingo.) After the stress of the drive we decide to call it an early night. A dinner of comfort food at the Cracker Barrel and an after-dinner swim for the kids. I sat out this time, enjoying my adult beverage pool side in my acrylic glass. We also use this opportunity to do some laundry. Somewhere along the way I took too long to move my clothes. I came back to fold the dryer full and found my laundry neatly folded on top of the dryer. Wow! What a treat, some nice lady folded my laundry! I wrote a quick note of thanks and apology for taking too long to move my stuff and left it on the dryer. It is nice to know that there are still nice people in the world.

It is an early day tomorrow, we have reservations to ride to the top of the arch at 9 AM. Time to go to bed.