Day 163 - Wednesday, April 22 - Iuka, MS to Bloomsdale, MO

 No water in the drip pan this morning. PTL! Looks like the guys got the leak fixed. I texted Brian at 7AM to tell him we were good to leave this morning, and that I would be over about 8AM to pay him.

We hooked up the trailer and headed north at 9:20. The plan was to drive 293 miles to the Bloomsdale Rest Area on I55 and spend the night at the rest area. 

Traffic an pavement surfaces were decent most of the way. Going through Jackson, TN is always kind of challenging, but not a real problem. US45 is a multilane city street through Jackson.

We arrived at the I55 Missouri Welcome Center, near Hayti, at 12:20PM. Kathy fixed us lunch and we just hung around for almost 2 hours. There was no need to rush since we were staying overnight in a rest area.

The highest price diesel we saw was $5.99/gal at a Love's Truck Stop in Tennessee. We saw it for $4.79 at a couple of stations in Missouri. We bought fuel at one of those stations. I worked at a pump jockey, pumped gas for people (really people used to drive into a station and someone put gas in their cars). I can still remember the first time I managed to squeeze $10 worth of gas in a car. In the late 60's the average retail price of gasoline was around $0.45/gallon (I was paid $1.25-2.00/hr while working at the gas stations). I bet I remember today's fill up for a long time.

And I still had 45 gallons of fuel in the tank. We rain the generator 3 hours since our last fill up. Our fuel mileage, ignoring the fuel we burned running the generator, was 7.7 mpg.

Then it was on to the rest area. It is a beautiful evening. We both are enjoying the green and actual trees. 

Parked at the rest area.

Kathy took a cup of coffee and I took and ice tea out to one of the picnic tables. It was a nice afternoon to sit outside.

We are 180 miles from home.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.