Friday, April 30

Our trip started on Friday, April 30th. We got up, got ready, and then helped my sister do some final sorting before we got on the road. Finally ready to go, we headed west! (Karen's little stuffed friend is Danimal. He was a gift from her friend in Philly and he made appearances in all the FB pictures she mobile uploaded while we were on the road. He kind of became the trip mascot.)

Our first state (after Virginia) was West Virginia. I think it had the best state sign to take a picture of.

We ate lunch in WV at the New River Gorge National Park rest stop. It was a great view!

The third state of the day was Kentucky. I was disappointed that we didn't immediately enter "horse country," but we saw some eventually!

State number four was Indiana. We drove by signs for Hoosier National Forest and the town of Santa Claus!

Illinois was state number five. It was starting to get dark, so the picture of the state sign is really blurry. It was towards the end of our travels in Illinois, when we were nearing Missouri, that we watched some great lightning flash in the sky in front of us. The next day we found out that the storm was one with a tornado warning!

We reached Missouri in the rainy darkness, so no state sign was photographed. Our hotel was located within the St. Louis Union Station, which was a really cool place to stay!

We ate dinner (late) that night at the St. Louis Hard Rock before cuddling into our comfy beds.

I drove the entire first day, which was around 870 miles... and which included a sunburnt left arm from having the window open all day! I guess I was excited, plus I'd rather drive than ride most of the time anyways.

Come back tomorrow for Day 2... I promise the pictures get prettier!