Courtney's Blog July 10th, Day 5 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

The troops are getting restless. I think Gideon is going certifiably insane. He was playing with his sippy cup, his camera and his sunglasses in the backseat. We heard the following exchange:

Gideon as his sippy cup: (in a sippy cup voice) "I have no feet!"

Gideon as his camera: (in a camera voice) "I have no feet, either!"

Gideon as his sunglasses: (in a sunglasses voice) "I dont' have feet, either!"

Gideon to them: "That's because you don't have feet!" (giggle, giggle, giggle)

Today was mainly a travel day. Just logging a bunch of miles. We have gone about 2,000 miles so far! We started our day by driving the rest of the way through Missouri and into Kansas. Just as we arrived in Kansas, we saw TowMater! It was a pretty cool site. There was a part of the town, Galena, that inspired the Cars movie. We saw the wall that inspired part of the town, TowMater, and Doc. Note: The original TowMater is on the right. They created the one with the teeth on the left after the movies came out. Some lady named "Melba the Mouth" came out of the little cafe and was hollering at as and talking amazingly fast. She told us she could have talked faster, but...she didn't have her teeth in today! You should have seen Abby's face. Anyways, we stayed awhile, signed the tourist book and met the other Route 66 travelers we had been following for a couple of hours. They were from England! And you thought WE were crazy doing this. They came from another country...

Next, we stopped by quick at the Tri-State Marker which is the corner of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. That was pretty cool too. Kansas was QUICK and we entered Oklahoma about 1.5 hours after we entered Kansas! One thing about Oklahoma....I am not sure if you saw it in the news, but there was a skunk suicide pact that was carried out in the past couple of days. We must have passed 5 - 10 roadkill skunks on our Oklahoma travels. Oklahoma started off being VERY WELL signed as to directions of Route 66. There was also a lot more to see as the Route 66 attractions were kept up instead of being disregarded and left in disrepair. As time moved on though, the roads were less defined. We missed some stuff today, but we hope it wasn't too life-changing. We decided to get about half way across Oklahoma into Oklahoma City and spend some time here tomorrow visiting friends and going to the pool. We saw lots of beautiful sites on the ride to OK city. And, I am sorry to say, we had our first "pull over" of the trip.

As I am driving down an another apocalyptic road in OK, I see a beautiful field on my left. The sun is starting to set to my right and the golden rays look beautiful on the grass and in contrast with the blue sky and puffy white clouds. I can't help myself and pull over and put my flashers on. What does it matter? There are no other cars anyways...well....as soon as I get my camera and take a picture, those red and blue lights are on behind me. UGH. Are you serious? Only 5 days in. I'd like to preface the rest of this story, with a story about me and my friends when we were 17 in Massachusetts. One night on the way home from the movies, we blow a tire. It is me, my best friend at the time, and my soon to be boyfriend. We all have NO idea how to change a tire, and are stranded on the side of the road in Marlboro. Now kids, you'll have trouble believing this but this was BEFORE cell phones. We didn't have one. We tried to change the tire ourselves, but we couldn't. We walked the highway (495) up to the next exit and found a pay phone. We tried calling our parents, but they weren't answering. Then, a cop pulls into the gas station! Hooray! We are saved! It is 10pm at night, and I run over to the cop and explain the situation and ask for help. His reply was "That's not my problem". I asked nicely again, and he said he would come "watch us change the tire". Fine. Whatever. He drives us to the car, and then he calls for backup. Oh, ok. Too busy to help at first, but now we need an audience? He tried changing the tire himself, but he couldn't either. Finally, we got a tow truck and the cop sped away from us without so much as a "are you all set, now?". Ok, now back to the story. The OK cop walks over to my windshield and says "Ma'am, everything alright here?" I said "I'm so sorry! I was just taking a picture, I am from Massachusetts and don't get to see these sites often!" He said "Just making sure you weren't broken down and needed help!" and then he walked away. Are you kidding? We really are Massholes, huh? The picture I got is below. Not sure if it was worth it or not?

For dinner we decided to try a Route 66 famous cafe that had chicken fried steak, one of Adam's favorites. The place was pretty cool and all decked out in 1950's style decor. They also had fried green tomatoes and mushrooms, YUM!! All in all, food was great. The waitress gave Abby a dollar for an arcade game, and we saw a nice historical landmark.

We got to the hotel around 9pm. Put the kids to bed at 9:30. Gideon went to bed at 11:00. We are excited to relax, do laundry, swim in the pool and see family friends tomorrow!

Summary:

Lots of travel today, not so many sites. Gideon was less confrontational, but we still had a "waking from the nap wrong" moment. Abby has been full for 2 days, and Blankie is almost back with Grandma!

Ended the Day at the Residence Inn, OK City, OK

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