DAY 44 came very early. It did rain, thunderstorms in fact. I woke about 1 hour after falling asleep to the light pounding of rain on the roof of the car. It would soon be time to close the windows. I sat in the driver’s seat hearing what I believe was a pack of coyotes and watching the lighting dance across the sky. Soon after the thunder was getting louder and louder, and with that the rain came pouring down. I could only leave the windows open a crack (thankfully since there are visors on the car). If I hadn’t had that, I wouldn’t have slept at all. I went in and out of sleep adjusting the windows with the storm’s passing. With a crash behind us, not knowing what caused it, it was time for us to go. We made it back to the pavilion, had a bit of breakfast, and headed on our way.

Our first stop of the day was the State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas. I have taken the tour to the top before, but I couldn’t resist doing it again. I was also able to take more time looking around the state building itself and the museum on the ground floor. After getting our fill, we moved on to our final destination, Gateway Arch National Park.

We had some trouble finding adequate parking at the near the Arch which led us to some extra driving, out of Missouri and back. The drive over the bridge allowed a chance to capture a great photograph. There was some disappointment when we arrived; tram tickets to the top had been sold out for the day. We opted to watch the documentary about the building of the arch. It was one of the most interesting one’s I have seen; both keeping me on edge of my seat and filling my head with interesting bits of knowledge. It was late in the day and we didn’t get to see much of the recently updated museum. Just walking through the hallway (on our way to and from watching the movie) sparks my interest to revisit this in the future.

We got on the road and set off for our scheduled sleeping spot. That was a crazy 20 minute drive. There was a construction zone where a “flagger” held a sign that showed SLOW. About 500 feet down the way I have a car coming toward me. I moved over as much as possible and let them pass. Then a few seconds later another car was heading my way. Someone wasn’t doing their job. This happened two more times. My only guess is people were coming in from side streets. We made it safely through the obstacle course only to arrive at locked gates for the Missouri Welcome Center.

We chose to keep pressing on, getting to Flying J slightly after midnight. It had been very muggy and hot the last few times we had gotten out of the car and we were driving into a storm. I figured I would be in for another miserable night’s sleep. Since the storm had arrived by the time we settled in, we only cracked the windows, turned on the little fan, and hoped for the best.