Rain, rain, go away!

I guess the country needs the rain, but we sure don't like driving in it.  The thunder and lightning started around 3am while we were parked in the Walmart lot in Eureka, Missouri for the night.  We weren't excited when it was still going on at 9am as we were ready to hit the road.  The car battery performed well, but we had a small delay with concern about the "idiot light" for the security/theft system which was constantly flashing on the dash of the Escape.  It had not done that previously.  We made calls to Bryan Ford and to the service department we had visited in Indianapolis yesterday and were told not to worry about it for now.  Okay!  We later heard from our Palm Creek friend who tows an Escape that his does the same thing.  We continued our drive west with a couple stops at rest areas and arrived at Downstream Casino just west of Joplin, MO around 4:00 local time.  From the freeway we saw little of the damage from last spring's tornado.  We have stayed here a couple times in the past....free water and electric hookups and a shuttle to the casino if we so desire.  They are counting on that, I suppose, but we usually don't spend any money inside.  This is the place that the casino is in Oklahoma, the hotel is in Kansas and the parking lot is in Missouri.  :-)   This will give us a chance to catch up on some laundry.  And, WOW, the sun came out as we were getting hooked up.