posted by dave on Sunday, April 16, 2006 at 2:42 PM in category travel

(Written Friday morning)

I guess the drive wasn't too bad. It was long, and it was boring, and after the first hour or so, it was hot, but it felt kind of good to be actually doing something.

I used to, over twenty years ago, make the drive between Western Illinois and Southern Indiana at least once a month. Even after I got married we still enjoyed going to my parents' house as often as we could.

One place that we always stopped at was this Hardee's in the middle of Illinois. I stopped there yesterday, and it was still there. Not much has changed in that part of Illinois.

I keep having to remind myself that it's really been more like 15 years since I've spent any time in the St. Louis area - not 20. During the period between 1989 and 1991 my ex-wife and I were back together, living in Nebraska, and we'd go visit her parents in Illinois or my Dad in Indiana. I really don't remember much about those trips though.

It still takes a tank of gas to get from the Georgetown Indiana exit to the Scott AFB Illinois exit, so I found myself taking that old exit and looking for a gas station. It would have been cool if I could have gone onto the base to check it out, but of course I couldn't do that. So I just drove around a bit and ended up at a gas station in Belleville.

This time my journey didn't end at the Scott AFB exit like it used to. This time I got back on I-64 and drove those extra 20 miles to St. Louis. Those extra 20 miles took about an hour and a half due to road construction. I'd been having this internal debate with myself about whether I wanted to go back to the Scott/Belleville/Mascoutah area on Saturday to explore. I think the road construction has made my mind up for me. There's just not really anything there that I need to see. It was all too long ago. It was another life, and not a particularly good one.

So I'll just dick around St. Louis, and I'll let those things that are in the past stay in the past.

post a comment

If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.

I'll pretty much approve anything except SPAM comments, or comments that clearly have no purpose except to piss me off, or comments that are insulting to a previous commenter.

Use anything you want for your name and email address. I think it has to at least look like a valid email address though.

mysterious gray box mysterious blue box mysterious red box mysterious green box mysterious gold box

search main 'blog

Year

Month

Category

Author

Search word(s)
   help me!

blog favorites

searching
awakening
the convenience of grief
apology
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
paradise
nothing personal
the one
dream sweet dreams for me
the willow bends and so do i
on bloodied ground
r.i.p.
lack of inertia
gray
thinning the herd
or maybe not
here's looking at you
what i miss
peril
who wants to play?
feverish thoughts
the devil inside?
perseverance
my cat ate my homework
don't say i didn't warn you
forgiveness
my god, it's full of stars
hold on a second, koko, i'm writing something
you know?
apples and oranges
happy new year
pissing on the inside
ramblings
remembering dad


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.