I think the honeymoon period is over. Today was a rough day for all 7 of us, I think. Tension in the van is running high, and it doesn't take much to bring people to tears, but I think a good night's rest will help with that. Last night in St. Louis, we had thunderstorms until about 4am, so I think it impacted the sleep we all got, plus we're still getting used to the different timezones and being less active than normal. But we're doing the best we can, taking one day at a time. We'll get through it, or we'll die trying!
The rain stopped, but there were still plenty of dark rainclouds overhead. The Maintenance Required light came on the van, so I went to get our first oil change of the trip. Conveniently, there was a Valvoline Instant Oil Change site about 2 minutes down the road, and they were able to get me in and out pretty quickly. It was pretty funny, they all wanted to talk about the trip, see the route, and talk about food recommendations. Apparently Imo's and Chuy's are good, but we haven't yet had a chance to try either. I was drenched in sweat once again from putting the roof bag on (94% humidity!) but the guys working in the shop looked cool as a cucumber.
Our first stop of the day was Forest Park. We hit the Jewel Box which was a neat little botanical garden area in the park. Admission was $1 per person over 5 and it was pretty small, but the air conditioning worked phenomenally. It was nice, but probably not worth visiting more than once. Next, we drove through the park a bit to see the Muny and a lovely Pagoda before heading to the Visitor's Center. We got lots of information about the park - they have a zoo inside it that is 100% free! I also chatted with the forest ranger who told me that today's humidity (which was 94%, remember) was "a bit lighter than usual". I would die if I lived here.
We were getting closer to our scheduled time for the Gateway Arch, so we hopped back in the van and drove toward the waterfront. The arch is weird. Like... I know it's tall, but it doesn't look as tall as it sounds. And its width matches its height, but it doesn't look like it. It's just weird. We stood in line and waited our turn. They normally only allow 5 people per tram, but we took 2 of the smaller kiddos into our laps and we all crammed into one little sardine can. It's a 30 minute wait in line, a 4 minute ride to the top, 10 minutes of looking through tiny windows, and then a 3 minute ride down. I was, on the whole, unimpressed. The kids seemed to like it, but "T" was very much freaked out by the tram ride up and down. He survived though!
I wasn't feeling very well, but whether it was from the heat, work stresses, exhaustion, a terrible diet for the last 2 weeks, or some combination of them all, I'm not sure. We hit the road with Jasper, Indiana being our final destination for the night. From St. Louis to Jasper is almost a straight line due East through Illinois, but unfortunately there's hardly anything worth doing in Illinois along that route. So... We just didn't do anything. Sorry to anyone that might be offended, but there just wasn't anything worth adding a few extra hours driving time to do today. Maybe we'll find something to do in Illinois a few years from now, but I'm guessing not.
The trip was a little over 200 miles, and I planned to work most of it, but I found myself up against a frustrating number of issues. I had quite a few internet dead spots along the way and when the signal wasn't completely gone, it was so low and slow that I couldn't accomplish much anyway before things started timing out. It was resulting in some really weird behavior so I just gave up. Tomorrow will be a better working day, I hope. Instead, I sat back and watched the nothingness of Illinois flash past the windows.
When we crossed the border into Indiana (state #14!), the scenery changed. It was almost like someone decided to plant a wall of trees on both sides of the interstate. You could see that the trees weren't very deep, only 10 or so feet, but they were pretty dense. And then they would stop completely, and you'd have 5 miles of farmland before another 10-foot-deep wall of trees. But I'll take that over the expansive desert nothingness that we have coming next month, that stuff can be dangerously boring.
Tomorrow, if things go well, we're going to visit Santa Claus!