Day Seventeen: More than some pretty face beside a train

St. Louis was awesome. Holly's house was beautiful and comfortable and the view from the front steps (of little flowers blooming in the lush spring grasses, of squirrels leaping on fences and trees, of all of this happening in the perfectly warming rays of a spring sun) was bordering on idyllic. But there comes a time in a road trip when, well, one has to just get one's ass on the road. This morning, the morning of Day Seventeen, was when the alarm rang for Mike&SharTours. And, having stayed up way too late last night figuring out where we were going today, by the time we were out the door, standing on those steps and looking out at that perfect spring day, we were ready to get a move on. Ready to get back to our mission! Ready for adventure! Ready to start watching the miles tick up and the gas tank tick down as the landscapes of America fly by us at 70 miles per hour! Ready, oh yes, we were ready!

Which is why it was more than a little frustrating when the car wouldn't start.

I think the Blue Hornet took a cue from Holly's cats and decided to punish us for leaving her alone for a week and a half. We apologized profusely, her battery got a jump start (God bless you, AAA man!), and she let us back into her good graces. Which was good because we're gonna need her quite a bit over the next few weeks.

Let me illustrate our day for you by first telling you that we drove in a total of five states today, and that our total driving time was about seven hours. Now let me tell you the order in which these states rolled their asphalts under our tires: Missouri. Illinois. Kentucky. Missouri. Arkansas. Tennessee. Sound a little roundabout? That's because it was. We took a massive detour (almost thwarted by a Google Maps fatal flaw which, of course, we could have fixed for them if they'd let us on campus) in order to see something truly fantastic. Or should I say..... KRYPTONIAN?!?

Friends, if you are looking for an awesome getaway spot, may I suggest Metropolis, Illinois? I think I can safely say that there is nothing on Earth like it (except Supergirl, Krypto, and Lor-Zod aka Christopher Kent. One could, I guess, argue that Power Girl might count. This is not, of course, including persons currently imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, living in the miniature city of Kandor or... *sigh* never mind). You may recognize Metropolis from this awesome picture, followed closely by today's recreation of the same.

After many wrong turns and meanderings down back highways, we are now in Memphis, TN. Memphis is awesome, and it's shortlisted for the "Places we want to spend some time in one day" list. We're in a delightful room 18 floors up in the Hilton tower, which was much more delightful before it started thunderstorming outside our very high and very large window. Oh, severe weather alerts: did you miss us as much as we missed you?

We kinda sorta know where we're heading tomorrow. But shhhh! Don't tell the storm!

Today we listened to: a city's worth of Superman theme music and soundtracks, Graceland (Paul Simon), Journey's Greatest Hits, and ourselves singing "Don't Stop Believing" at the top of our lungs as Kentucky rolled prettily by.
Me: Didn't we just hear this song?
Mike: Oh, I put it on this playlist, like, five times.
Me: Awesome.

Mystery words: A camel, but no rhinoceros.

Mike writes purdy: astoriedyear.blogspot.com