Da Trip: Day One

I hit the road this morning at about 8 a.m. pretty close to my planned takeoff time. Stopped to get petrol, and then onto the toll road. I took I-55 south through Illinois. The cats eventually settled down, but whoo....one of them missed the litterbox early on, and I had a nice cleaning job to do tonight!
First side trip was to Blackburn College, in Carlinville, IL. It's about halfway between Springfield, IL and St. Louis, MO. I got my B.A. in Music there in '87. The campus and town have changed, of course, but once I got my bearings it wasn't too bad. I walked around campus, and even ran into a couple of professors I knew, the Buxbaums. She has retired from teaching Spanish, and he's still in the art department. Had a nice chat with both of them. Sorry to say, there is now only a department of 'perfoming arts' and not a music dept. or theater dept. There's not even an instrumental music professor! The college band is mostly community people, and the conductor comes by just for the weekly rehearsal. That was really hard to hear, as I was in so many instrumental and vocal ensembles while I was there. At least they still have choir and the madrigal singers. OH, and I found out that our choir director has retired...and now lives in Albuquerque!! What a small planet! Gonna have to try to look him up once I get settled.
I tried to find lunch in Carlinville, but only the fastfood places were open, so I went down the road to Litchfield. I found the other Jubelt's Bakery & Restaurant! The Carlinville one has since closed, but I used to eat there fairly often. Finally, after 20 years....I got the awesome bread pudding with lemon sauce!!! Ah, life's little pleasures!
Back on the road after lunch, and on through to Missouri. Fairly smooth driving, just a little bit of congestion on a tricky interchange at St. Louis. Managed to avoid the rush hour, thank goodness. I decided to keep driving till the sun got in my eyes, basically, and by that time I was at Springfield, MO. I'd kinda decided earlier that Springfield would be a good goal, and I'm tickled that my estimate was so good.
So I am sitting in the Krystal-Aire Inn & Suites. It's a completely smoke-free hotel, and they allow pets in the rooms! Bonus! My kitties are here in the room with me (under the bed for now, poor things) and have their litterbox and feeding station in the bathroom. I'm so glad I didn't have to leave them in their carrier in the truck. Thank you, dear Bast!
I ordered a Domino's Pizza so that I didn't have to be away from the room. Wanted to stay with kitties, y'know? Besides, now I have snacks for tomorrow. And caffeine. Dr. Pepper is good stuff. Then again, Ghost cat is now noshing on my veggie pizza. Hey, whatever works....I would rather see her eat than go hungry.
According to the online atlas thing, I have about 12 hours of driving ahead of me, or about 830 miles. I do plan to split it up, as I need to arrive in Santa Fe when the store is open, I think. I need to get the apartment key, of course, and it's easier to just go to the store first. On the plus side, that means that I don't have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn! Amarillo, TX is about 8 1/2 hours of driving, so somewhere around there is probably what I'll aim for.
Well, it's only 9:30 here, but my body says it's 10:30, and I'm tired. Time to clean up and unwind for bed. More tomorrow!
Thanks everyone for all the good juju, energy and support!