Heat Wave

We are at the Walmart in Bowling Green, Missouri (map). We had planned to stop a bit earlier, perhaps in Hannibal, but the Walmart there was unappealing and it was a bit too warm to be comfortable when we arrived there at 5pm, so we continued another half hour. It was cooler here when we arrived, perhaps merely due to the extra time.

We had a pleasant drive along state routes 15 and 6, undulating two-lane for most of the way. US-61, also known as Avenue of the Saints, was less appealing, a four-lane divided freeway, but we had done the Great River Road on our last pass through. We stopped in Palmyra at the same UPS center we visited on that trip, this time to ship a damaged coolant pump back to Washington. At least we already knew where to go this time.

While it was comfortable when we arrived and we had a pleasant night with the windows open, today a heat wave is moving in to the area. I got a heat advisory alert on my phone already, and a quick check of the weather reveals this will be with us through the weekend, with no place to escape. Not that our friends who have been deployed to Colorado, where temperatures are already well past the century mark, want to hear us whine about it. From now through the end of the weekend, we'll be seeking out overnight options with enough power to run a couple of air conditioners.

In a few minutes I will walk back to the store to return the movie I rented from Red Box last night, and we will get back on the road. Tonight we will be in Saint Louis, where we have dinner plans with fellow full-timers Chris, Cherie, Sam, and Tracy. En route, we will stop for fuel -- Missouri has the cheapest diesel we will see for quite a while.

Photo by Pockafwye, used under a Creative Commons license.