Day 1 – 10/07/2022
For the first time since my sabbatical in 2018 we are finally taking a vacation. This one is to Orlando, Florida. We decided to drive so we could see more of the country and enjoy the trip as much as the destination. We decided to go east and then south through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia and finally Florida. When we left it was foggy and quite chilly.
The first day of our drive we crossed all of Kansas and stopped for the night in Columbia, Missouri. Kansas is very long, flat and, to be quite honest, ugly. There are no mountains, trees or water to be seen. I was hoping a bit to at least see a tornado (in the distance) just for something visually interesting but no such luck. Once you get to the very west end of Kansas is starts looking much better. By the time we reached Kansas City there were trees and it was quite beautiful. That’s when we crossed over into Missouri. In Missouri the trees were changing to their fall colors and it was absolutely beautiful. The entire drive from Kansas City to Columbia was a beautiful color wash of trees all along the highway. It was quite impressive and made the drive really enjoyable. It was a long day so we didn’t stop to take pictures. The only pictures we got were from the car moving at 75 mph.
We finally arrived in Columbia around 8pm. We checked into the Staybridge Hotel which was very nice. Unfortunately they had just cleaned the carpet in the room we were in so the floor was a little damp still. But otherwise it was a nice hotel. We went and had dinner at TGI Fridays. It was really tasty. We then just went back to the room and relaxed a bit before hitting the sack.
While driving through Kansas, we encountered a long stretch of road where they were doing construction. It seems when putting down the stripes in the middle of the road that the driver was a bit drunk as the stripes were all really crooked. We found it quite entertaining. We didn’t see this in any other state yet we did encounter a lot of road construction.
Next -> The Middle East
The Traveling Maker 