Route 66, Day 1: It Goes Down to St. Louis (not)

Today started the journey to California, where after a decade solely on my own and working for the temple, I’ll be rejoining the for-profit sector in hopes of being able to afford health insurance and student loans. I was supposed to start out yesterday, but simply had too much to do to wrap up my full-time presence at Tawy. So today was my day.

The intention is to get to San Jose, CA by Wednesday. The winter weather made thoughts of the two more northerly routes a little terrifying, so I’ve opted to get my kicks on Route 66, or its modern equivalents. At least I can’t get lost as long as I can sing the song, right?

As it turns out, I couldn’t even make it to St. Louis today, my intended first stop, since I was loading the car in the morning and wanted to start slower. The water delivery was 4 hours late, and by then, the snow had started. By the time I left Tawy and got on the road, it actually took me more than an hour to get from the temple to the Holiday Inn where we hold our Kemetic New Year retreat in the summer. Those of you who have been here will be amazed – the rest can be told it’s not even three miles. The roads were horrible. All the falling snow turned into slop several inches deep, which then turned into ice and froze in place. I watched a few cars try and fail even to get up the little hills near the drawbridges over the river. So I angled around and got on the freeway – which wasn’t any better.

While inside at the hotel to pay our retreat deposit, my last errand before leaving town, I learned that they were closing I-55 due to the ice. Since that’s the part of the road that goes to St. Louis, I was stuck. Since I was on the other side of town from Tawy due to the bridges, I was also stuck….so tonight, I’m actually snowed into a parking place three miles from my home. On the plus side, I now know that this hotel’s sleeping rooms are at least as nice as its conference rooms. Tomorrow’s weather report bodes less ominous, and once I get south of here, I can say goodbye to random Chicago January weather.

Also starting after this post goes up, follow me at @tamarasiuda on Twitter to see random photos and thoughts from the cross-country adventure. I’ll check in as I can from the Mother Road.

(photos and links added February 10, 2012)