We awoke to a pretty nice morning, just a tad cool, but with some grey clouds starting to appear overhead. First I broke down camp (so the tent and gear wouldn't get wet if it rained) then we went on a walk. Max enjoyed exploring the campground and tracking the dogs of the other campers (mostly RV's). He even ran for a little while, which has been unusual lately. Apparently that is more due to the heat than his arthritis, so the cool weather made him feel pretty good. I was glad we were heading north and also happy that this seemed to reaffirm that he would like this trip. There was plenty of cool weather left to be had where we were going.
Then we cooked breakfast and hit the road. We took a scenic route back to I-24 (Cummings Hwy, US64) which allowed us to see a little bit of the real South: no mobile phone service, lots of trailer homes and poverty, but also nice lake views and winding country roads through the hills.
This was our long driving day at about 12 hours. We went clear across Tennessee (through Nashville and Clarksville) on I-24 and into Kentucky. I have a little soft spot for Kentucky since I lived there in Lexington for most of 1998. We stopped at a really nice rest area and had lunch and walked around a bit, then just up the road we jumped off I24 for a scenic detour. The only place that intrigued me in Kentucky, and my original idea for where to stop after day 1, was Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. It also was not very far out of our way at all, maybe just slowing us down by a few minutes. It was nice scenery, but what really occurred to me there happened when I realized that they were clearing the way next to me to widen this from a 2-lane road to a 4-lane divided highway. That seemed very destructive and unnecessary considering the lack of traffic and the fact that it was supposed to be protected lands. Anyway, I realized that part of why road trips are special is that you can't really recreate one. Things change, be they roads or buildings or towns, or experiences along the way.
We continued up US68 for a while, eventually coming back into I24 near Paducah. Then we entered Illinois, which I didn't even expect to drive through. Actually our route took us through it quite a bit of Illinois, illustrating my lack of awareness regarding midwest geography. That may be bad for this trip. Had a nice walk at a rest area that had some wooded trails for dogs to go down. A really nice gay guy petted Max. I guess there is something about gays hanging out at rest stops.
After we swung onto I64 to go West, we're just driving along midway through the state when I see this old Winnebego-style RV start to veer right (already in the right lane). I was getting ready to pass but hung back since I thought hitting the bumps would wake him up and he might swing back too hard, overcorrecting. Nope, apparently he was sound asleep, because that thing went right off the road and down the embankment. I grabbed the phone to dial 911 and prepared to stop, thinking that I was going to watch this thing EXPLODE when it hit the trees. It did not look like it would take much for this thing to shatter apart anyway. So just before he hits the big trees, he swings it around, goes parallel to them for a while ripping branches off and throwing leaves everywhere, then makes it back up to the road and stops. I slowed down to a crawl next to him to see if he was OK, and he looked fine, just embarrassed. There were limbs and leaves sticking out everywhere, the side door was swinging open, but it seemed pretty much intact. I really regret not stopping and getting out under the cover of checking on if he was alright but really to take a picture of the RV. It was a sight.
Onward through Illinois. Big storms ahead of us but they split and went around us. There is one problem with going from Illinois into Missouri: St Louis. I got my token picture of the Arch and thought I had slipped through before rush hour. Wrong. What an awful place to drive through between 4 and 5 pm. This convinced me to avoid major cities in the future regardless of what google maps says.
After somehow escaping from St Louis, we were running behind schedule. There were storms up ahead with tornado warnings coming through Kansas City ahead of me. Our campground was up I-70 another couple of hours and then down south another 45 minutes or so. I did not remember it being that far out of the way, either. I must have picked this place based on the name: Knob Noster State Park. I'll jump at the chance to stay at a funny named place. We still had a ways to go and needed gas so we got dinner at Subway, gassed up, and found a nice place to eat behind the Chamber of Commerce or something which had a clean empty parking lot to stop and eat at, a large field next to it to take a walk, and a nice memorial to all the firefighters who had died in Missouri. There was a cool, strong breeze blowing ahead of the rain and we were on kind of a rise watching the weather come at us. 
We went as far as we could. We made it almost to KC, actually to the exit where we were supposed to turn to drive another 45 minutes to the south to reach the campsite. The sky was black and flashing with angry lightning ahead. There was a sign for a campground/rv park right off the exit. We got off at the exit then doubled back maybe half a mile and came upon this RV park that probably used to be pretty nice until the new owners bought it but didn't have the money to keep it maintained. I'm gathering some of this from a really nice aerial photo of the place hanging in the "restaurant"/office. Thinking about ordering something to eat in there makes me feel ill even now. Anyway, I didn't see all that until the next day. I just saw darkness setting in, raindrops starting to splatter, ominous lightning, and an RV park with a some unoccupied slots. There was an "after hours registration" box, fill out the little form and place with $13 in the mailbox thing and we had our place to stop. This was, apparently, going to be "truck camping" night. No problem, that's why we've got it and we may as well try it out.
Max's surprise was apparent when I started to crawl into the back. Just like when I set up the air mattress in the Orlando house after the furniture was gone to Savannah, he thought it was a nice big doggie bed for him. There was really plenty of room for him, which he would concede the next night, but he didn't like it so he went up and curled up in the front passenger seat. I settled in to a surprisingly comfortable air mattress. I had removed the back seats to allow more room in the back for a twin air mattress, and had been smart enough to already have inflated and made with sheets and a blanket, with the sleeping bag and pillow within easy reach. I hung my towel across the windshield for privacy and to block the lightning from Max, and settled in to watch the lightning show. We didn't get too much heavy weather, but just to the south of us did based on the lightning over there. Compared to a tent in this or some random cheap hotel, we were sleeping in style. Well, in comfort at least.
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