We're not in Kansas anymore

 DANVILLE, MO -- We have just completed two days of the most dreaded part of our travels, the long interstate haul over what is not-so-charitably known as flyover country.

 Westbound, it's a little easier, because scenery and adventure opportunities await.  Heading back to the East Coast just means returning to a familiar routine, and it seems to take forever.

 You choose your poison.  This week, we've crossed Colorado, Kansas (all 424 miles of it) and part of Missouri.  Tomorrow, we'll be in suburban St. Louis, where a cousin of mine doesn't mind providing the occasional lodgings for weary travelers.

 Last year, bound for the Chicago area to visit one of my aunts, we crossed via Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Westbound last year, we crossed Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota.

 My personal favorite is the I-40 route through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, where  the monotony can be interrupted easily by good barbecue.

 Our once-was-enough route is I-10.  West Texas is endless, San Antonio traffic was horrible and Houston was worse.  We said "never again" about eight years ago, and we haven't driven I-10 west of Louisiana since.

 After St. Louis, we will have a day and a half run to North Carolina, and then no definite plan for a couple of weeks.  No define plan is my favorite plan of all.