Day One is complete

Day One of the ESKS New England Extravaganza Roadtrip 2K9 has concluded. We left Oklahoma City at 6:30 this morning, and after 732.8 miles, made it to Indianapolis at almost 8 Eastern Time.

The weather changed several times through the day. Skies were clear when we left Oklahoma City. As we entered Missouri, the skies became cloudy, and we drove through intermittent showers from Springfield to Vandalia, IL. From Vandalia to Indianapolis, skies were partly cloudy.

Some notes from today:

Oklahoma Highway Patrol was out in full force; we saw about 5 of their cars along our travels through Oklahoma. We hardly saw any in Missouri, then saw 2 in a 5-mile stretch in Illinois.

Missouri (at least on I-44) has not converted to Clearview yet. Illinois has a few Clearview signs but not too many. Indiana still has a lot of button copy signs left.

The only major traffic jam of the day was in downtown St. Louis when we were going onto I-70 East; traffic was backed up all the way to I-44's eastern terminus.

Route:

OK 3 West to Kilpatrick Turnpike

Kilpatrick Turnpike East to I-44

I-44 East to I-70

I-70 East to I-465

I-465 North to Sam Jones Expressway

Trip Log:

Departed OKC: 6:34 AM, mile 664.4

McDonald's - Vinita, OK: 8:57 AM, mile 833.9

Conoco - St. Robert, MO - 12:18 PM, mile 1034.5

Taco Bell - St. Robert, MO - 12:19 PM, mile 1034.5

Illinois Travel Center - 3:36 PM, mile 1194.8

Indiana Travel Center - 6:36 PM EDT, mile 1324.3

Arrived Indianapolis - 7:50 PM, mile 1397.2

The pictures will be uploaded to Flickr later tonight, so stay tuned!

Tomorrow, we plan to travel to Rochester, NY, with a sidetrip to Niagara Falls. It appears it will be a rainy day, but we shall see.

ES