Thursday, March 29, 2018

Our 5th Leg Home

Where Are We Today
Effingham & Wapakoneta
Leaving Grove Ok. Wednesday morning to started the 5th leg of our trek home, driven over two days.
The first day we travelled on U.S. 59N to Hwy 125N to U.S. 60E to I-49N to I-44 E to I-70E.
U.S. 59N and Hwy 125N are two lane roadways in good condition that I will rate  8.5 out of ten for both them.

Entering St. Louis

This brings us to U.S. 60E, also a two lane roadway, you turn onto U.S.-60E at Fairland Ok. Right off the bat, I thought this was not going to be a smooth ride. Once we cleared the town, the road smoothed out and we had a nice ride to I-49N. Having said that, my rating for U.S.-60E is a 8 out of ten.
That was the extent of the two lane roadways, the rest of our 5th leg trek is on interstate highways. Beginning with I-49N and I-44E. Both of these highways I am going to rate at 8.5 out of ten except for the last section of I-44E from St. Claire to St. Louis, Missouri. This section got a little worse, so I will rate it as a 8 out of ten.
The famous Arch

Entering the city of St. Louis, we merged onto I-55N/I-70E, driving thru the city close to the famous Arch, finally merging onto I-70E. I wanted to rate this road at a 8 to 8.5, but sadly the bridges are in rough shape so my overall rating is down to a 7.5 from here into Effingham, Illinois, where we stopped for the night at a Cracker Barrel.
Hard to read the signs until you were up close. This was our second day.

There has been some rain today but only intermittent wiper use.
Day two of our trek is a whole other story. Starting out with rain that continued all day to our destination in Wapakoneta Ohio.

Travelling on I-70 E through the rest of Illinois and then through Indiana, taking the I-465 S then I-465 N bypass around Indianapolis to I-70 E, this highway continued to be a seat retching, vehicle jarring  road. The worst are the bridges along with some stretches of the roadway,  it comes close to I-69 that we travelled last winter.
Most of the day was this.

Once we entered Ohio, I-70 E became much smoother that I will rate the rest of the travel on it as a 8 out of ten.
At Dayton Ohio, we merged onto I-75 N. You want to make sure you are in the right lane for this, as it is only a single lane exit and you must slow down to 20 MPH as it is a sharp right hand curve down onto I-75.
I-75 N to Wapakoneta, Ohio is a smooth ride that I will rate as an 8.5 out of ten.

I-70 above, we just came off of it, now on I-75N

This has been a long day compared to yesterday, the constant rain and mist from the passing vehicles, trying to read the road signs in the rain and watch for the right lanes has been tiring. I like to drive, and even though it was less miles today, I was ready to get off the road for day when we did.
Arrowhead Campground, Wapakoneta, Ohio

Thanks for following along, hope these reports help if you happen to be coming this way. There are only two more legs of our trek until we are back in Ontario Canada that I will report on. Stay tune for them.
Until the next time, stay well and travel safe.

 

9 comments:

  1. Nice that you are there now to relax a bit and enjoy the area.

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  2. Sounds like quite a couple of days! Glad you made it and can relax for a few days. Ken likes to drive too, but not when the weather is so sucky!

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    1. The second day was the worst. Wanted to get here for one long rest before two short hops back to Ontario. Travel safe guys.

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  3. That was a lot of miles you put in and those last ones no matter the condition of the roads would be brutal with all the rain/mist/fog type conditions. Thanks for the information, I was thinking about heading up toward Indianapolis but now I think I'll change our direction and stay further to the east.

    Glad you arrived safe and sound. Relax for a few days and hopefully the weather improves for the next few miles home to Canada.

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  4. Thanks Deb, even without the rain yesterday, that drive on I-70E would have been brutal. We are here for a week then Toledo for a couple of nights while I take in a Radio Control Model show there. Then into Ontario on the 7th. Definitely find another route home, safe travels.

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  5. Thank you for your highway ratings. This sure tells us not to load up the top hanging cabinets with too much weight in them while traveling on I-70E, otherwise they could end up on the floor. I was thinking about heavy china or so. In case this happens, that will require a lot of fixing (for me, Benno). Some trailers have sandwiched fibreglass-foam-thin plywood walls and the cabinets are screwed on with only a few screws and without any glue.

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    1. Your welcome. Even with our solid built cabinets, we keep anything heavy in the bottom cupboards. I-70 E is really rough especially in Indiana. Safe travels home.

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  6. Nice catchup, dear. Glad I could help with the pictures. :)

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