No pictures on the first day. We set out from Homewood, IL, at 7am, and rode and rode. We got to St. Louis at noon, and got stuck in traffic at the bridge over the Mississippi, so we took a detour off down random city streets, past the stadium where the Rams play. We finally found our way back onto the expressway and were off again, only to hit more traffic.
Shortly after lunch came the first scare of the trip, as a deer decided to play chicken on the expressway, darting through traffic right in front of us. Fortunately, it judged everything correctly and neither we, nor any other vehicle hit it. Around 1pm, the heat was over 100 degrees, and the humidity was around 70%, so we opted to stop for a while, and sat in a movie theatre, watching Miami Vice. Got back on the road around 6pm, and made it to Springfield, Missouri, where we spend the night.