Stuck here in 46201

Fishers, Indiana - 1840.6 miles

Seemed like every ZIP code in greater Indianapolis was sticky in some way today; there's something going on called Hyperfix, in which they (presumably the Indiana Department of Asphalt, or whatever) are supposed to be fixing the entire Inner Loop all at once, which will be wonderful once they get it done — apparently a couple of hours from now — but for now it's misery to the max.

On the upside, my suite in this anonymous suburb (46038) is not at all sour.

Still, it's been a rough 500 or so miles since KC. My daughter's pride-and-joy tree spewed something hideously sticky onto my car, and five bucks at the car wash didn't quite clean it all up. I-70 through Missouri is just as drab as I remembered it; for the sake of variety I decided to take the downtown St. Louis route instead of the canonical bypass (Missouri 370 to I-270 across the river and back to 70). By the time I got to St. Louis County, there was a curt note that 70 would be closed somewhere downtown, and the last time I was in downtown St. Louis I was about 2.6 sheets to the wind and couldn't possibly remember how to get through the maze of streets in the shadow of the Arch, so I reluctantly pointed myself to 270.

Which, from that onramp, has a blind spot the size of — well, exactly the size of a Dodge Grand Caravan. If nothing else, this gave me the opportunity to demonstrate, to myself if to no one else, the reason why I scorn ABS brakes and don't have them on my car. ("Sometimes I want to lock the wheels, dammit.") Nothing was hit, I never got out of my lane, and my blood pressure rose only slightly, but this put me in a rather glum mood.

Then the rain hit. It had been sprinkling ever since Columbia, but once I crossed into Illinois, the clouds opened up with torrents of rain, just enough to make visibility optional but not enough to loosen up the tree sap. And when it stopped, the bugs, which had been hiding during the storm, attacked with a vengeance.

Which brings me into Indiana, but you know about that.

Posted at 6:13 PM to World Tour '03