This continues my coverage of our trip out west … the move to Portland. This leg is from Carrollton, GA to St. Louis, MO.
Everything is starting to feel like a blur. We made it to St. Louis, Missouri on day two of our journey. When you look at the distance on the map it’s impressive. We’ll be staying here for two nights so we can check out the Arch tomorrow, and Union Station if all goes well. Should be pretty kickass.
Driving through Atlanta around 10am on a Saturday was great. There weren’t very many cars on the road at all. We ignored the beltway and went straight in to the East on I-20, and then took I-75 North. If you ever get a chance to take I-75 North early on a Saturday morning, do it. It’s fun. I doubt a weekday trip on the same route would be as stimulating.
The Mountain roads around Chattanooga were awesome! Even though they might make some people uneasy, I loved driving them. I’m so glad we didn’t bypass them and head to Birmingham instead. Alabama doesn’t interest me at all. We went through Chattanooga just before lunch time on a Saturday, which was a breeze. Really not too many cars on the road. Kristen made a comment that it feels like Cruisin’ USA. It really did feel like we were racing around tight corners, up and down mountains, through valleys, all while seeing impossible landscapes.
Kentucky was the second part of our journey that I grew bored of pretty quickly. The heat wave followed us, so the 97 degree weather didn’t help. Later parts of Tennessee along I-24 were much the same. Illinois brought on a new kind of farm country and some different terrain. Even though it started to look the same, it was still beautiful.
In total we did 9 hours, 18 minutes on the road today. 8 hours is a lot of time to spend behind a desk, and 9 hours is a TON of time to spend driving. Definitely not a pace we can sustain all the way out west.