East Bound and Down, Loaded Up and Trucking, Vol 1.

The Welch clan started a new tradition a couple of years ago... I remembered the old Jerry Reed song from "Smoky and the Bandit", and we adopted it as our "headed to Maine" song.  Every day on the trip, we start the morning by playing that song on the stereo system as we set off for the next waypoint on the way to  44.0472545°, -070.9555544°... otherwise known as Fryeburg, ME.

After the annual game of "Luggage Tetris" (wherein I try to fit way too much stuff into way too little van and overhead Yakima), the banjos started playing this year early on a Sunday morning, and we headed up towards Missouri via Hwy. 69 in Oklahoma.   Your intrepid blogger was adamant about trying to cut travel costs this year, so we brought along lunch-type food in bags and cooler and stopped for lunch at a city park in Chouteau, OK.

The family decided it wasn't such a bad lunch after all, and Matthew even had time to shinny up a tree.

Then it was on to Missouri to stay with some wonderful friends in St. Peters... they were most gracious to put our clan up for the night so Allison could have time to visit her Dad in St. Louis the next morning.  On the way, though, we made a late-afternoon stop in Springfield.. Allison wanted to show the boys the building where her grandfather's furniture shop used to be.. it is now a graphics firm.

The building is parceled out differently in the row of shops, and looks very different, but that is the nature of time and progress.  But as Matthew discovered when we looked at the alley, to see the door that Allison always remembered going into as a youngster, we all just need to:

After the trip down memory lane, it was time for some Mexican Villa before heading to the St. Louis area.  Allison found a "Mexican Villa" on Google that was much closer to I44 and would not delay us as much, but when we pulled up, it looked quite different from what I expected.  

Turned out this was a counter service version of Mexican Villa rather than a full restaurant.  The "Burrito Enchilada Style" may have come on a paper plate rather than a ceramic one, but it tasted just as good.

When we arrived at our friends house, we had a relaxing evening, and I even got to watch the NHL finals match between Pittsburgh and Nashville.  Our hostess hailed from Pittsburgh, and her family are Penguins fans, so it was fun to watch them win the cup from the couch at their house.  The perfect relaxing end to the first day.

The next morning, we headed over to the assisted living facility in St. Louis, and Allison took the boys in to see their Grandpa, while I went to Walmart for some replacement supplies.  On the way, I noticed this old railroad trestle bridge.

I love the railroad components you see in some of these older towns in the U.S.  The slogan that was painted on this one is showing its age, but the whole vignette smacks of a different time, and this kind of thing is a model railroader fan's delight.  If you look closely at the picture, you will find another clue about some historicity of this location... not only is the railroad old, but the actual road has an interesting past as well.  After the Walmart trip, I found a place to park the van where I could safely take a picture from beside the road... I couldn't pass this up.

After picking the family back up, we traversed Ol' Man River (the Mississippi), and headed east by nor'east to Toledo, OH.  And Jerry sang to us again:

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin',

We're gonna do what they say can't be done.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

I'm east bound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.

Categories: camp, Maine, summer