Trip to Portland - Atlanta to St. Louis

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Within the first hour after departing our beloved city of Atlanta, there came an interesting happening. Our great companion on the trip, Heather’s cat Maggie, had a small accident. Maggie was in Heather’s lap in the front passenger seat with her two front paws up on the window so she could peer outwards and watch the action occurring outside the window. We slowly passed a large red semi truck and Maggie appeared a bit scared. She crouched down and replaced her front paws back on Heather’s lap, then proceeded to cross over into my lap in retreat. We smelled something horrible, and both looked down where Maggie had come from – Maggie had left a (solid, thankfully) surprise in Heather’s lap – and, as Heather says, she had the crap scared right out of her. After moments of heavy laughter and me trying to decide if I should grab a camera or not, Heather cleaned up the mess and on we went, westward bound. As for the rest of the car trip, Maggie did very well. Instead of crawling into the back floorboards and hiding, she preferred to spend most of her time in our laps and not in the cozy confines of the back seat that we had painstakingly planned out and arranged for her.

An Addendum, by Heather
While Jeff has done an amazing job chronicling our journey, he has left out some very important facts of our story. Mainly, it must be noted that the following video was taken during a very long drive across Kansas. I am thankful for Kansas and all of the amazing corn it provides, however it is not the most exciting of all states. It's flat. And green. In case family and friends were worried that I have taken my self described cat ladiness too far, fear not! It was just Kansas! I promise. I do still talk to my cat every now and then, but have not danced with her since that fair state. I promise. Okay, somehow this little explanation makes me feel like I have a bit more pride. Sort of.

We proceeded on through Chattanooga and Nashville, but stopping off in Paducah, Kentucky. Here we stretched our legs a bit and took a look at the nice downtown area and the panoramic paintings along the banks of the Ohio River.

Crossing the great Mississippi River and into St. Louis, we stopped off at the gateway arch and observed the floodwater heights of the Mississippi River. We did not see the devastated local areas, but rather just the view from the Interstates passing through and a quick peak from the gateway arch park.

For pics, click the picture below: