Day 9 Wednesday 12/13/2017.

Got up and took the dogs out. Brushed my teeth, sort of and  left the Walmart parking lot for the Dodge dealership. I spent the night in Nebraska and drove to Iowa to have Spike serviced.  Yep.  It was all of about 4 miles.  Got to the dealership at about 8:00.  Drank several cups of coffee and talked with some of the locals who were having vehicles serviced.  I dropped the trailer in a defunct Ford dealers lot and put the dogs in the trailer.  Every 30 minutes ur so I checked to make sure that they were okay.
Finally, at 11:00 they cut me loose.  I jumped back on I-29 and went south to Kansas City.  Aside from being nearly run off the road by idiots on their cell phones getting to KC was very boring.   From there I caught I-70 to St. Louis.  I had intended to stay the night there but they have so much violent crime that I thought it might not be safe even in a Walmart parking lot.  It was only about 90 miles on to Cape Girardeau.  I opted to drive the extra 1 1/2 hours just to be safe. Arrived at the Walmart at 10:00.
I’m hurrying every chance I get so I’m not doing much in the way of sight seeing. I understand that Rush Limbaugh’s boyhood home is here somewhere but I’ll be moving on in the morning without seeing it.  I am going to attempt to make it to Bessemer, AL to see a cousin I haven’t seen since I graduated high school in 1963.  Graduated may be a serious over statement of the facts. I was released with a piece of paper that said. ” Yep. He attended all 12 years.”  My academic career stalled when I discovered the School Library at the beginning of the 10th grade.  From then on I read 4-5 books a week.  I only read text books at the beginning of each school year.  The only books I ever took home were library books.  I discovered something odd about my education a couple of years ago.  I somehow skipped the sixth grade. Moved to Alabama to live with my father and I was just starting the 6th.  Started Brighton School in the Seventh.  I didn’t start school until I was 7 but I ‘graduated’ at 18.  Didn’t seem to make any difference.
The dogs have been fed and are asleep.  Seems a damned shame to wake them up for their evening walk. If I don’t take them out Gandy will get me up at 3-4 in the morning.
Covered 628 miles today in 11 hours.  Average speed 57.1 mph. Not a bad day of driving.   The temp is a balmy 49 degrees.
Dinner was sliced chicken on honey wheat with a slab of Vidalia onion.  Dessert was a handful of ginger snaps.  All of it washed down by vodka-seven.