Snowstorm

We have made it all the way to Auburn, Ne where Kathy's son lives. A little snow is falling. We were in the St Louis area for a couple days visiting Karen (Kathy's sister-in-law - see pic of their house) and Tom. We are trying to skirt a major midwestern snowstorm, it is actually worse to the south. But we are staying put until tomorrow, then will see what the weather will bring.

Our trip so far has been good, no major technical problems. We are experiencing parts of the country that we have never seen. I especially liked the parts of southern Indiana. We are trying to stay off the interstates as much as possible, preferring the US highways ("blue highways"). They have taken us through interesting countrysides and and towns. Besides St Louis, we drove through Columbus, Oh but have avoided other major cities. Some of the smaller cities that we drove through include Uniontown and Washington in Pa, Wheeling WV, Zanesville, Oh with the famous Y bridge (why don't they have a Z bridge?), Richmond, Bedford and Vincennes in Indiana, and Hannibal, Macon and St Joseph in Missouri. We have crossed the Ohio River by Wheeling, the Mississippi by St Louis (after rush hour thankfully) and last night the Missouri by Auburn.

We have met some very friendly and helpful people. The man who ran the RV campground near Zanesville talked with us at length. He has a number of permanent residents in his park, mostly working people. So it was a mix of them and travelers like us. He expects that they will be busy this year, and said he was that some RV dealers told him they are selling RVs very well. We wondered if people are moving out of their homes into RVs, experiencing hard times. He also talked of his hopes for the Obama administration, that they can pull off all the things that have to be mended in the country. We talked with a friendly ranger at Starve Hollow, who politely gave us a refund for our site, since we didn't use the full hookups. She helped find the little town of Bethlehem, Indiana on her map, which was where Kathy's grandparents had lived. Kathy wasn't sure the town still existed since it didn't show up on our road atlas. We stopped at Hindostan Falls near Loogootee, In for lunch on Wednesday. A friendly local named Larry came over to greet us and provided stories of his life in an RV and the tragic deaths that have occurred at the falls over the years.

Gotta run, we are heading to the p.o. and check out Auburn.

A littl