7-13-16  St. Louis bound---again!  More Dr. appointments!

At least we have AC at our home there again!  It was put in yesterday!  Good to know someone in the business you can trust and not have to be there when it's installed.  Bad that it was $5000 (including furnace), especially since we aren't there all the time.  Since it was put in yesterday, we decided to drive to St. Louis today and give me a day to rest up before my Dr appointment on the 15th.  The weather was nice---hot, but a pretty day to be in the car for 10 or 11 hours.  To amuse myself, I took pictures from the road again.
We got through Nashville this time without a whole lot of slow downs.

 I love riding through Tennessee.   Lots of mountains and lakes---at least in the Eastern part of the state.

 driving down a mountain.

 Then there are the Midwest farms with the old dilapidated barns all over the place.

 Ahhhh---the Salt Life---that's for me.

 Glad we weren't going that way---good thing we're going to Tim and FAith's on the way back and will be taking a different route!

I find all kinds of things interesting!

 I thought of Angie when I saw this.

 I'm also a sucker for interesting clouds.  I got a lot of them on this ride, too.

 Even saw a Midwest vineyard!

 and lots of corn and soy bean crops.

 and lots of interesting barns that aren't dilapidated yet.

 back to the clouds

 my favorite barn this trip

  the "mountains" of southeast Illinois.

 finally into Illinois and I-57.  And as always---lots of construction cones.

Again the traffic was at a standstill going the other way.

REnd lake in Southern Illinois as seen from I-57

 After stopping and having dinner with my brother and his wife in Mt. Vernon, we continued on to St. Louis.  This is the first view of the Arch from I-64---right before we turned off on 255 and headed north to 270.

 Crossing the Mississippi on 270 in North County.

 We made it.

So why are we back in St. Louis so soon?  During the baby shower trip last month, I went back to the heart Dr. for the results of the 10 days I wore the heart monitor.  The results were bad enough that he advised me to have a surgical procedure called an ablation.  The A-fib really doesn't bother me, but it's definitely gotten worse and if I can make it go away or greatly reduce with the ablation, I pretty much decided why not have the surgery.  So this trip was to meet with the surgeon.  I thought I'd be leaving there with a date for surgery.  But like everything else about these heart Dr. appointments, more surprises were in store!