Putting it through the floor on IH-44

I didn't want to waste all my shots on dead critters before I even got to where I was going, not knowing how many shots really fit on a card or how long the battery would last, etc. Seemed like the camera might be nearing a need for a feed, soon. But I did want to play with it as much as possible to get a feel for what it could do, so I took a few more potshots at the permanently posed. Here's a lazy mountain lion, icon of my town.

Helped an elk get a drink. I'm always pretty thirsty myself. Saw some live ones along HI-7 last trip, but nothing so large on this year's drive.

The deer against the computer station just struck me as...weird. So naturally I had to take a picture of it.

And finally I played around with the juxtaposition of Nature and Technology. I'm all about visual humor and the oblique. Forgive me.

Eventually I decided I'd had enough and needed to get moving. Probably got an icy drink or something somewhere; definitely got back on the highway and headed east across Missouri.

Always liked the idea of living in Missouri; then I could tell people I lived in a State of Misery. Of course real Missourians say "Mizzura," which spoils the pun right there.

My great-grandmother, a teacher and school principal among other things (so she should know better, right?) hailed from there and always said it that way. Drove me nuts. LOL

My next quest, besides keeping awake and not going blind in the morning sun, was figuring out what I could do that would be different on this trip (having a habit of making regular stops at certain places much of the time, and wanting to see new things). Usually stopped around Merimec Caverns (if only to give a passing nod to my naughty kin, the James boys) and St. Louis, but I've done Merimec the last several times and it would be too late to enjoy St. Louis by the time I got there, if I made any other stops, anyway. And I needed to keep in mind the fact that I really ought to find a motel this evening, something I'd really never done myself before. I think the only places I'd ever personally procured were a hotel in Vegas and a hostel in San Francisco, and only because I was with a friend and both situations were unusually affordable. My parents always car-camped so I learned to do the same thing in my travelling. Nothing unusual about it at all. But I suppose there comes an age when the allure of showers and beds are hard to ignore versus the creaks and cricks of a body subjected to cramped upholstery. I'm getting there.