Heading down to our Longboat Key condo for the first time since the pandemic developed, we opted for a more western route due to the gasoline shortage along the Eastern Seaboard. From St. Louis, we drove southward on Interstate 55, undulating through the eastern edge of the Missouri Ozarks, a scenic landscape of forest, dolomite cliffs and attractive rural homesteads.
Just south of Cape Girardeau, the highway drops onto the broad floodplain of the Mississippi River, a northward extension of the Coastal Plain. This flat terrain is now covered by crop fields, partially flooded and just beginning to green on this sunny, May afternoon. After enduring a horrendous traffic jam in Memphis (due to the closing of an Interstate bridge), we picked up Route 78 (also Interstate 22) southeast of the city and began a pleasant drive across the hill country of northern Mississippi, passing through the Holly Springs National Forest en route.
We will spend the night in Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace of The King! Tomorrow's route and destination remain undecided but that is the beauty of leisurely travel; covering new territory will be a priority.
