Sullivan to Wichita Falls Tx

Last night's supper was at Appleby's where we each ordered a steak that was very good for the price. It was our first time at Appleby's recently: it's definitely been added to our list.

Our start involved gassing up at a Flying J centre. First, our affinity card brought up the message "see attendant" then our credit card authentication asked for our ZIP code.  So I went to see a very pleasant attendant.  The affinity card was obsolete, but she would set me up with a new one.  Since this was her first time setting up new affinity cards, things did not go all that smoothly, but after a few tries the computer said OK.  Trying to prepay and use the new affinity card did not work and after talking to manager, attendant, and seeing Joan wandering nervously awaiting my return, I gassed up at $1.75/gal [both US standard], Joan washed the windows and spotted a full length tractor trailer which was private, had huge glass sliding doors, and looked opulent...  Some people travel in style...

The Knobhill area in Missouri has extensive fields growing grapes everywhere with new wineries seeming to sprout along the highway.

We drove through very hilly terrain and the radio seemed to hold NPR stations very well.  When NPR was no longer available we listened to a local station hosting a local 'trading post'.  The rules were explained including the fact that guns and ammo were not suitable for the selling or trading.  Many cars, trucks, chain saws, kitchen appliances including a truck with no engine or transmission but was described as being in good condition.  The neatest item was a chap who was looking for a couple of beagles for running rabbits. Ozark's anyone?

We stopped listening to another radio station in Lebanon Mo. after ten minutes of obituaries, really!  It was interesting to note how many 'survivors' still lived in the same city/town of the deceased.  Lebanon also had hundreds of various sized boats shrink-wrapped for the winter.

Most strong radio stations were the religious stations.  It's a pretty narrow view of religion when we saw billboards stating clearly "marriage = man + woman". That, along with some NPR commentary indicates that there is a long way to go before prejudice and bigotry are history...

On the water front, we saw lots of flooding throughout the day. The portion of Intestate 44 that we expected would be closed was actually opened and there was very little evidence of serious flood damage, except for floating debris caught up in the tree branches.

Along the way, we saw dozens of extremely large churches, lots of large horse farms, and Joan even spotted a camel/dromedary farm. She also spotted a farm of Waterbucks, likely set up to supply hunters with trophies. [my supposition...]

The day started with freezing temperatures and it was mid afternoon before the temperatures went up to about 4ºC.  What was quite amazing was the amount of snow remaining on the north side of house roofs, hills, and highway barriers.  They must have had a severe snow dump in the last day or two, yet the highway was dry most of the way.

We stopped at around 5:45, and stayed at another Baymont motel, and it was just as good as last night's.  Johnny Carino's, a good Italian restaurant nearby, provided a fine supper, and now, early bed sounds pretty good.  Only about 1,300 miles to go.