Wilson Price Hunt Trail (‘Astorians’) 1811 — 1812

Day 8: August 20th, 2006 Columbus — St. Charles

Unfortunately I did not really sleep well. Around 5am I wake up and I am not able to fall asleep again. Therefore I get up early and around 8am I already have finished breakfast at the Bob Evans and pay. Then I drive over to the next gas station and around a quarter past eight I am ready to roll.

Today is a lot of traffic. Sure, it is a Sunday and the weather is really nice. We have already in the morning temperatures around 65 degrees!

I–70, State Line OH and IN

I–70, State Line OH and IN

On I–70 I cross the state line to Indiana.

Like almost every year, I get around the city center of Indianapolis on I–465. Only when I gas up I did my math wrong. I stop at a gas station in Cloverland, where the gas price is $0.30 more than in Terre Haute! If I would have known that before — I would have had enough gas in my tank to reach Terre Haute…

I–70, State Line IN and IL

Just past Terre Haute I cross the state line to Illinois. In the meantime the temperatures are up to 75 degrees.

I–270, Chain of Rocks Canal, IL

I–270, Mississippi River, State Line IL and MO

Finally I approach St. Louis and circle around this city center on a northern route on I–270. The interstate takes me over the Chain of Rocks Canal and finally the Mississippi River and though the state line to Missouri.

I–70, Missouri River, MO

Then I get back on I–70 and cross the Missouri River. Now we have reached the maximum temperature of the day with 85 degrees!

Already at 3pm I check in at my destination of today, the Motel 6 in St. Charles. Because I do not plan to drive into the city of St. Louis I can take a motel, which is in a greater distance to the city center. All the other motels I have stayed in before were not really great. So I hope the one in St. Charles is much nicer.

And indeed, the motels around here are just first floor and the site is really nice. In the future, I will definitely stay here. I also ask for the closest Wal–Mart and Outback Steakhouse. This time, I really receive perfect directions.

After I have unloaded everything I drive over to Wal–Mart. All in all, today is the almost traditional CD buying event for me. Around half past five I pay and drive back to my motel. There I start listening to my first CDs and also write my first text message back home with my new prepaid mobile phone.

Then I drive over to the Outback Steakhouse, where I am sadly receiving a not so nice table: The table points directly in the restaurant and you look directly in the faces of the other people around while having dinner. They don’t have these nice booths like in the other Outbacks. Around half past eight I pay and drive back to my motel. There I listen to another CD, before I go to bed. All in all I have to catch up some sleep…