Oct
20
2009

Day 1 - Warsaw, MO To Elk City, OK

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 09:49:41 pm
(Posted Under: Operation Desert Rock, Travel)
Getting up this morning was no fun. The only thing that really got me up was the realization that I'd have plenty of time to sleep in the car today. Without that, it would have been very hard to have woken up, despite the want to.

This morning consisted of packing the last few things needed to get in the car, and fitting in the episode of My Monkey Baby that Katie wanted to see. Previously to seeing this, I didn't think having Bubbles made Jacko wacko (one of the few things). After seeing this, I have come to the conclusion that anyone with a pet monkey has some severe social issues.

Photobox ImageAfter this we amazingly got our pumpkin carved before leaving. You're not hardcore...and all that! I really didn't think that we'd get this done, especially since we'd got it a while ago and hadn't found time. There was really something rewarding to get it done - probably because there were so many little things we were going to squeeze in before leaving Australia, but ultimately had to abandon. It came out pretty good, especially given the turbo speed design and carving. We only knew our pumpkin for a short time. Once he was carved, and photo taken, he was position on the Jensen's front porch, we said our goodbyes to Digs and Maggy, and were on the road. This wasn't until 11am, which is the brilliance in the plan of making this trip 3 days instead of 2, as it was nice getting those little things done.

We had previously resolved to redeem the coupon for our free fish that we won at the Springfield Cardinals game in July. Things looked good, since we found a location where we could redeem the voucher right of the 44. Perfect. On getting there, and adjusting the straps for the roof rack which had been flapping around in the wind, we went in to pick up the fish. Things were too good to be true, as the Soringfield curse rained down - the curse that trips to Springfield always seem to be going swimmingly, and then it goes haywire and time consuming. There were no gold fish in the store for sale. WHAT?!? How can a fucking gold fish not be for sale?!? It's not like they breast feed! We ended up trying a second store which wasn't too far out of our way. On walking through the store, I noticed that Hey Jealousy was playing on the radio - awesome! There was no way this store's gold fishes weren't going to be for sale!

With fish - yet to be named - and fish food in hand, we pulled back into the car and continued on the journey.

Photobox ImagePhotobox ImageThe only scheduled stop we had outside of Springfield was at the world's largest McDonald's (well, at one time the world's largest McDonalds) in Vinita, Okalhoma. I thought it was cool on the last drive, and determined it was somewhere I wanted to stop this time - which worked out good for also getting fuel without having the nighmare of getting off the Will Rogers Turnpike. I thought it was a cool little stop in the trip, and while we didn't need any food, I decided on sundaes to give us an excuse to sit up there over the turnpike as cars and trucks wizzed under us.

From there it was onwards to Elk City, Oklahoma. I finally broke out the Slash book and started reading it on this leg of the trip. I got it for Christmas almost two years ago, and haven't started it, not through lack of wanting to, just through lack of having time. So it was really good to get a start on that. I'd like to think I get through it before hitting Tempe, but that might be a bit optimistic.

Since we left late and had those few stops, night fell while we were still on the road, which was a little bit unnerving as it made it harder to keep and eye on clothes bag on the roof. Not that far out of Elk City we got low on gas, and 8 miles out, where we'd turned off to fill up, it seemed like we had pushed it too far as the car splutters, thankfully with the Shell station half a block in front of us. Finally the gas station was the same one we stopped at last month where I ended up chasing paperwork down the street. [smile] It was almost as windy as the last time there. After filling up it wasn't long until we were pulling up at the Days Inn in Elk Clty. That's right, a Days Inn. Priceline wasn't as kind to us last time, and we ended up booking Days Inn's for both nights this trip. Given my previous Days Inn experience (in Los Angeles four years ago) I consider this taking your life into your own hands, and as a matter of fact I particular avoiding booking a Days Inn on the last trip. Pulling up Katie announced that she was sure that it wasn't going to be as bad as our previous Days Inn experience. That's a prediction that really isn't that hard to make! Thankfully this Days Inn bad. Days Inn's are a special type of hotel - but this one is really nothing on the Los Angeles one we stayed at.

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