I got up at the normal time and dragged everything down to the car. Hope it's all packed and I didn't forget anything. After a normal breakfast I was going down the driveway at 7:30 PM. Traffic was not heavy at all, I was expecting worse for the end of Memorial Day weekend. I did a gas stop in Shelby for $2.59 then it was clear sailing until Nashville. At approx the Hermitage exit I looked ahead and saw nothing but black and I was going straight into it. The sky opened up and buckets of rain came down. Traffic slowed to 20 MPH for the duration of the storm. It was all over in about 15 minutes and the sun came out but the traffic still didn't get any faster. I did a roundabout way to get onto 24W because the ramp and the highway were at a standstill. I took 40W until 65N and went parallel to 24 but a few miles West. This was a good move since I soon picked up 24W and continued. Once outside of NAshville I stopped for gas and used my smartphone to cancel the reservation in Paducah since it was only 3 PM with the time zone change. Made it to 19 miles before St Louis and called ahead to the Holiday Inn to see if there was a room available. There was a room so I decided to go for it. Bought gas at 2.89, had a chicken sandwich at McDonalds and hit the road again.
I wasn't tired yet and it was 8 PM when I was driving through St Louis. Took a little rickety bridge across the Mississippi next to the St Louis arch, it was dark but pretty scenic since the arch was lit up nicely. Had an uneventful trip across MO but around midnight I was hoping it would be over. Couldn't believe the GPS took me through downtown. I wasn't even sure I was going to the right location but soon I reached the HI and checked in at 12:30. Into the room at 1 AM and out cold.