Day 1

Official day one on the road. Yesterday we packed and left Bloomington. It was hard but could have been worse had we not had this awesome trip to look forward to. We stopped by my dad's grave. I told him about the trip and Herb promised to take good care of me. I thought for a few minutes that I was going to get through it without crying. But I didn't.
Bloomington looked beautiful as always when we drove away. The sun was shining and the steeples rose above state road 46 as we drove out to the west. We left a little late-7 PM. And ironically, we had dinner at the Honeycreek Mall in Terre Haute, my mom's old hometown. It was so beautiful on the drive from Bloomington to Terre Haute-miles of rolling hills and small farmhouses in disrepair. The corn was probably over 6 1/2 feet tall. I had forgotten how pretty corn is and how much I like watching it grow over the course of the summer. Southern Indiana is so lovely-a very well kept secret. Maybe we'll come back one day.
We stayed the night in Illinois in a Ramada-it was pretty nice. Except for one towel being a little dirty, it was quite comfortable. Herb was really happy that there was a breakfast included. We thought it was continental but the he found biscuits and gravy. Today we are going to try to make it to Columbia MO for lunch and Hays Kansas for dinner. We have a book called "Roadfood" and I am trying to stop at a lot of the places they recommend. Most of them are centered around meat which will hopefully keep me from pigging out too much. The MO place is a hamburger joint and the Hays restaurant is barbecue I think. Herb will like them though.
That's it for now. Official Day 1 begins. Herb and I are getting along really well. He's so fun!!!
Hopefully I'll download and post some more pictures tomorrow.