Rest stop:or how I know I'm home

I'm still 3 hours from St. Louis. I had just sort of figured out a way to sleep on these seats, when we pull off somewhere and slow down. I sit up and see rows of semi trucks (anyone else think it's weird to call them semi trucks? I mean they seem like more of a truck than anything else. If half circles walked around being that large and with such high flattening power, would they still be called semi circles? ok....way too tired). Anyway, lots of trucks, "Dixie Truckers Home," "Stuckey's" and a "Cafe and Buffet" (read meat and coffee), and a general store (read chips, candy, soft drinks, and silly souvenirs of route 66). I decide using a real bathroom and a bag free stretch would be nice so I step down the stairs (double decker bus too), and it hits me.

I had muzzily noticed that when I looked out the window, I couldn't see very far and everything seemed to be glowing light pollution orange, but I didn't really consider it and fell back asleep. That haze= fog, in Illinois. So not happy cool sea fog but sticks to you making you clammy and makes you focus on breathing fog. Good ol' Midwest humidity.

After using the bathroom (I was skeptical, the water in there was literally yellow, even after flushing), I noticed a menu on the wall (still in the womens bathroom). It contained nothing but steak specials, except what was listed as bacon wrapped fillet, not sure what they were implying but it had bacon (yay for being back in the land of streaky bacon!) and was the cheapest (at $17+). Oh Americans.

I walked out and went to see if the general store had any Cadbury's. They didn't. Not that I'm surprised that a truck stop on old 66 doesn't have it, but I had to look. They did have those toffee cup things we bought when we went to see Robin Hood, I was tempted. It's so strange being back, seeing familiar but somehow foriegn snacks on the shelf, I literally had to take a minute just to process the sight of hostess cakes. I also noticed a lot of new flavors of different things, which was strange. I feel behind on things I should probably know about. I expected that going into Wales, it's a strange feeling to have in my own country.

Alright, I'm going to try for some more sleep, so I'm not raving mad when my parents come to pick me up. Hopefully this rest stop will be over soon, we're all sick of sitting here.