4:35 am Sarah: Silly Christmas tree, it’s outside! (Sees lights on pine tree)
9:19 am leave Ohio, enter Indiana
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| Almost Thought It Was St. Louis |
10:00 am Eating the world’s worst truck stop corn dogs in recorded human history. Stephen rightfully refuses them.
11:00 am Indianapolis, IN
11:20 am Sight a White Solo Truck, make up silly song to the tune of Red Solo Cup
11:45 Highway Pet Peeve #3: Big trucks that change lanes 3 feet in front of your bumper in order to pass other big trucks going up a hill while driving approximately only ten feet per year faster than the other said trucks, all of which are going 20mph under the speed limit and forcing you to slam on the brakes going up a hill and lose all forward momentum
12:00 Noon Leave Indiana, enter Illinois
12:01 Stephen has very stinky diarrhea, which we think is caused by teething molars
12:15 Is there a single country song written that does not use the word “country” in it?
1:30 pm Effington, Illinois. Original name of this city is unprintable.
1:34 pm See distant family's business
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| No Water In Sight. A True Wick's Business |
2:00 pm St. Elmo, Illinois.
2:30 pm Observation that Indian travel stops seem to perpetuate every negative stereotype about Indians.
2:40 pm Mama applying teething gel to Stephen
2:45 pm Papa doing ab crunches in his seat
3:00 pm St. Louis, Missouri. Mama entertaining kids by making fart noises
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| You May Not Believe It, But This Photo Of The St. Louis Archway Was Literally Taken From Our Car (Postcard Offers Considered) |
3:00 pm Kids' sleep relay - Sarah wakes up right as Stephen falls asleep.
4:00 pm Burger King
5:00 pm Rolla, Missouri
5:25 pm After seeing it during the day, we propose a new state slogan for Missouri: “Prettier At Night”
6:30 pm Gas $2.94/gal in Springfield, Missouri
8:00 pm Arrive at McDonald’s in Joplin, Missouri to search for a place to stay. (This part of Joplin was not devastated by the big tornado a year earlier.)
8:45 pm Lie down to sleep in Motel 6 for $50.31.
Day 2
3:20 am Get up and get ready to leave.
3:45 am Get gas for $2.87/gal, leave Joplin.
3:50 am Drive by some devastated buildings covered with plastic.
4:00 am Leave Missouri, enter Oklahoma, narrowly missing both Kansas and Arkansas.
4:15 am Rain
5:15 am Tulsa, OK
6:00 am Drive by signs for “Free Restrooms”
6:45 am Oklahoma City, still raining.
8:00 am Gas $3.05/gal near Clinton, OK
9:30 am Leave OK, enter TX, look for McDonalds
10:00 am Shamrock, TX McDonalds
10:15 am See our 4th overturned tractor trailer of our trip.
10:20 am See billboard for Flying Snake something. Sarah: Look, a flying snake!
10:41 am It is always tragic to see a little cross along the side of the highway. Also tragic is when the fatality apparently was a 500-foot giant.
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| Poor Giant. |
11:30 am See a big Army Navy store
12:10 pm Enter New Mexico, change time zone, new time 11:10 am.
11:40 am Tucumcari, NM
12:00 Noon Stop at Shell station with weird attendant who meets me at the door and tells me that they don’t sell engine oil, “Just transmission fluid, that’s all.” Buy 3 gallons of gas at $3.37/gal. Stephen gets a very diarrhea-filled diaper changed. We remember having stopped at this same place on the previous leg, finding it oddly already closed at 5pm.
12:25 pm Look for cheaper gas
1:00 pm Gas for $2.77/gal in Santa Rosa, NM
2:00 pm Clines Corners travel center Subway. The employees gathered around to witness Papa’s footlong meatball marinara with every possible ingredient applied.
2:30 pm Albuquerque, NM
5:00 pm Gallup, NM, gas for $2.85/gal.
5:05 Accidentally enter wrong freeway entrance, lose 12 minutes to turn around.
5:30 pm Enter Arizona
6:00 pm Leave the big I-40 freeway for the smaller roads that go through Tonto National Forest.
6:15 pm A lot of mosquitoes in the headlights.
6:20 pm Those aren’t mosquitoes, its a snow flurry! Ironically, for the second cross-country drive, the only snow we encounter is in Arizona.
6:30 pm Very heavy snow flurries and strong winds make us consider pulling off the road.
7:05 pm Finally reach a gas station, stop for directions as phone not working.
7:15 pm Snowfall stops completely, but road surface conditions now much snowier.
8:20 pm Beautiful Payson, AZ
8:25 pm Driving with brights on almost the whole time on empty, curvy, mountainous roads.
9:45 pm Arrive home safe and sound in Phoenix/Scottsdale!
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