50 in 50: Picking Up the Pace…Supposedly!

We deliberately slowed the pace of this trip for us to celebrate our wedding anniversary but the plan was to ramp things up once we left Jacksonville early on 13th September.

This was never going to be a sedentary trip bearing in mind the challenge of visiting nine states in twelve days but when we looked at the map and re-evaluated a little on the things we wanted to see and do, we decided on the need to speed things up in order to take the pressure off in the last couple of days.

Oddly, that plan collapsed a tad within 50 miles when we came across a little town called Hannibal in Missouri. We had never heard of the place but it revealed itself to be the home of none other than Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written in 1876 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which followed in 1884.

The author’s real name was Samuel Clemens and he based much of these books on his life and experiences growing up in this small town. Everything in the town today appears to trade on his fame which is understandable and it was lovely to get a photo of the town’s current Tom and Becky, competition winners to represent these characters on behalf of their home town.

And so onwards to an overnight stop in Kansas City, a place that actually straddles the border of Missouri and Kansas (or Canvas as I keep calling it!) and then a beautiful and very peaceful run up through the State towards Omaha which is actually in Nebraska and then into Iowa.

The motoring has been incredible and whilst some of the highways and byways are in a pretty similar condition to our own roads, dreadful, this doesn’t detract in any way from the pleasure I get from driving here. The traffic just flows and it’s far less stressful than driving in the UK. Contrast my use of cruise control on one 100 mile section where I didn’t once touch either the brake or accelerator and the speed was set at 75mph! It simply wouldn’t be possible at home.

There is a downside though that I must highlight and that is the total lack of hills! Other than the 1200 feet one we discovered in Indiana, the land has been flat for as far as the eye can see and this has been the case for over 1000 miles to date. Agriculture clearly rules in virtually all these mid-West states and it’s easy to understand why these parts are referred to as “America’s Breadbasket”.

I did use the term downside a little unfairly because we are enjoying a wonderful road trip.

More on the run up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Fargo, North Dakota in the next dispatch.