Back to base...

I was told a couple of days ago that there is a country song somewhere that says the best way to see Amarillo is through a rear view mirror. To be fair, the view from the rear view mirror this morning was somewhat obscured as the sun had yet to rise when we left. All the same, it sounds a bit harsh to me as although I admit it may not be the most picturesque place I've visited, the people were certainly nice enough. Except maybe for the guy who appeared to be taking a pee in the ice dispenser at the gas station last night. Takes all sorts I guess.

I was surprised to see the number of speed traps on the last leg of our journey today. It appears that the emphasis here is to hide away and try to catch people speeding, whereas at home there is more focus on deterrent. From what I've seen, both approaches are as ineffective as each other, although of course I wouldn't dream of exceeding the legal speed limits anyway.

We've had a CB handset in the car for most of the journey which has been useful to hear tip offs about delays from local truckers and entertaining to hear the banter between them. We had a nice comment this morning from one guy who had obviously spotted the antenna on the car from his truck "Stick behind me little four-wheeled friend and I'll get you wherever you're heading!"

So this evening, after 11 days covering 4808 miles with and 202 photos (and that's just mine), I'm pleased to report that we made it safely back to St Louis, having covered everything on our original agenda and a few bonuses to boot.

As each of the "lasts" are slowly creeping up, tomorrow sees my last full day here so we have some local sightseeing planned during the day followed by a trip to Busch Stadium to watch the St Louis Cardinals.

Well you have to take in everything you can, it could be a little while before I get back here again...