We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto

We bid our family farewell as they headed off to work and school, then drove out into another grey and rainy day. Apparently grey skies are unusual here - they have 300 days a year of fine weather. We can probably scratch off a couple of the bad 65.

There's a light dusting of snow on the rooftops and fields, continuing all the way east.

Kansas City appeared to be an attractive town with old red brick buildings and a huge rail network. It would have been nice to look around, but we'd like to make it to Nashville tonight. We're always planning to come back to the USA, so it'll just go on the list if places to spend more time in.

Fifty miles east of Kansas City we came upon Kleinschmidt's Boot Barn, advertising 19000 pairs of boots. As a pair of boots was on Dom's shopping list, we stopped to investigate.

They were in the midst of a power blackout, so our shopping was done by torchlight, but it was a fabulous experience. There were plenty of helpful staff and many, many rows of gorgeous leather boots. Cowboy boots, biker boots, military boots, work boots. I even bought a pair - full leather, made in Mexico. Anyone who knows me well will understand how unusual this is. I'm not a boot girl.

Back on the road and it is snowing hard again! Neither of us had imagined that we'd be driving across the country on snowy roads in May.

We're seeing a lot of cars that have spun off the icy road and have been left where they landed. Surely they can't have this many issues every day in winter? Perhaps it's that it is unexpected.

We saw one fresh blue-sky rollover in Arizona, on a freeway with no obvious reason for the incident.

It's quite pretty country, undulating fields, farm houses, trees, red barns. Snow.

Arriving into St Louis, home of The Blues, still in pouring rain, we navigated into a shopping mall to decide what to do. I didn't want to continue for another five hours in such terrible driving conditions, so we agreed to stay here and have an early day.