DAY 43 began with a good night sleep at the Flying J. This surprised me as I usually figure it will be loud and traffic ridden. The setup was such that it wasn’t either. We took our time getting going, as our next stop didn’t open until noon. I miscalculated the distance to The Archway in addition to the fact we were crossing into Central Standard Time, so we didn’t arrive until 1:30 PM. This wasn’t a problem as the day was planned around this activity.

This is the second time I visited this museum. The technology has been updated so you can go at your own pace. It is an audio tour combined with audio visual displays alongside recreated scenes of “our” westward expansion through the advent of the interstate highway system. It took about 2 hours to go through the museum and I feel I took everything in . . . how much I retained is yet to be determined. We walked the grounds for another half hour or so then went on our merry way.

Our next stop was the Geographical Center of the United States of America. This was a nice rest spot with a picnic area that included a couple types of BBQ spaces. After stretching our legs we hopped back in the car and set off for our remote campsite for the night.

We lucked out! There was electricity in a pavilion there and there was no one using it. In fact there were hardly any people at the lake. We cooked on the grill, recharged some batteries, and cleaned up the area (people before us left it quite messy). After a delicious meal, we headed to a spot to get some sleep. It was humid, but tolerable with the windows open. It looked as if it were going to rain. If it does, we’ll have to close the windows and that will not be a good thing.