Roadtrip!

Well, for the first time in my life, I am vacationing not by taking a plane to my destination, but by renting a car and driving.  It's my annual sojourn to St. Louis, and that the city is somewhat close to the path of totality made this the perfect time to go down there this year.  But, possibly because of the eclipse, airfares were expensive compared to the $100 I have been able to buy a ticket for in the past.  Combine that with the experience I have gained in driving for long hours first out west (to Yosemite) and then out east (to Niagara Falls), and my fear that I will get into a crash and die while driving long distances and hours has kind of melted away.  Finally, gas prices are reasonable (at least for now), and I got enough points through Enterprise (thanks to the van we rented to our trip out west) to get two of the seven days I'll have the car for free, so I took the plunge.

My plans are still somewhat fluid.  I went to AAA to help me find a path down to St. Louis, but even after going back a second time to change my path back, I have to sort of throw my TripTik out the window because I forgot that the world-famous Iowa State Fair is still going on.  I planned on driving to one of two restaurants recommended by Roadfood in Cedar Rapids, but hey, when will I ever have the chance to hit the Iowa State Fair ever again?  So now I will have to improvise (with the help of Google Maps and Waze) to drive down 35 to Des Moines, then to STL.

And after that I still don't have my itinerary straight.  I have actually given myself seven days down there -- more than the four or five I usually give myself, but I have wanted to stay down in the Loo for that long for some time.  That gives me a lot of time to pack in all the things I want to do that I haven't done yet -- visit St. Charles, go to Connelly's Goody Goody Diner -- and do the things I regularly do down there -- hit the Arch, Cardinals games, casinos and, of course, stripclubs.  But I have yet to write down what I'm going to do then.  In fact, the fact that this is a road trip makes me question planning this vacation on the fly.  I think deep down things are going to be OK when I have no guarantee anything will be OK.

And that doesn't include the eclipse, which is the focal point of this trip.  I really have no idea where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do.  Well, I have a plan of going a couple hours to Carbondale, Ill., which is the site in the United States where totality is going to last the longest (assuming there are no clouds or rain, knock on wood).  I really don't know if there is a "right" way to watch an eclipse, even though there should be.  I mean, who's going to tell me when it's OK to take off my eclipse glasses and stare at the Sun?  I don't know, and I should.  Hell, there might be so much traffic going into Carbondale that I have no guarantee I'll even see it.

Eh, just go with it.  That's the best I can do at this point.  Well, you guys can wish me luck.  One thing I like about renting a car is that I am not under any luggage restrictions.  I am going to bring my new laptop, and I might bring both a blanket and a chair for the eclipse.  Or maybe not.  Hey, I'm winging it!  It's a roadtrip!