The first and last 2-3 days are always driving days for us when we take our "big" road trips. Our goal for day 2 was 565 which would take us from Tennessee to the middle of Missouri. Our planned driving time was "only" 9 hours. We always plan for a full day of driving to be 8-10 hours and a partial day to be 4. The reason for this is that we make a plan to stop every 2 hours and walk around and stand for at least 15 minutes. This is a standard recommendation for driving long distances. Some of our stops are a little longer to eat a meal, get gas, or let our dog have a walk.
However, we were up early and making really good time so we realized early in the day that we had extra time. Jennifer started researching places we could camp further ahead and we picked out several options 3-4 hours past where we planned to stop. Although we like having time to relax in our campsite, we were traveling during a heat wave and it was just too uncomfortable to stop anywhere. We picked several options just in case we saw something we wanted to stop at on the way. We discussed stopping at Cahokia World Heritage Site (which we've been to 3 times) or the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (which we've never stopped at) but ended up choosing to keep driving partially because we have to take turns and trade off sitting in the car with our pets and it was hot. We did see the Gateway Arch in St. Louis from the interstate. It always feels like our trip is really getting going when we pass that landmark.
We made it to Langdon Bend Access just outside of Langdon, Missouri at 10PM (https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/langdon-bend-access )
. Langdon Bend is a boat launch along the Missouri River that allows camping (and is free). Shortly after we arrived a friendly ranger pulled in to talk to us. He confirmed that we were allowed to camp there and said that many people chose to pitch tents or pull their cars into a gap in some nearby trees. Because the next morning was Sunday he let us know that some people might pull in close to sunrise to launch their boats to go fishing. The ranger also recommended that a better camping spot in the future would be Brickyard Hill Conservation Area at Charity Lake (https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/brickyard-hill-conservation-area ) which was about 30 minutes away. We chose to stay at Langdon Bend and camp in the parking lot area to hopefully get more breeze. At 1:30AM after not much sleep we were so hot that we decided to keep driving. There was very heavy fog so dense we could only see a few feet in front of the truck. About 30 miles further we stopped at a rest stop for a bathroom break and discovered it was much cooler here. We climbed in the back of the truck to stretch out for a few minutes and let Jerry rest his eyes which were strained from the fog. We both fell asleep unexpectedly and woke up 4 hours later.
