OOOOOKlahoma where the wind goes sweeping down the lane...

Entry 4

First... we would like to thank Adventurers Hans and Bob for their love and support on our big trip across America. Without you this trip literally would not have happened.

So I had this illusion that I would be updating my blogs before going to bed at night. Uh. That isn’t the only idea that has had to be kicked to the curb. *chuckle* Apparently, crashing and burning after 9 hours of driving the monster on rte 66 is enough. :-).

Yesterday spent the day in St. Louis at the St. Louis City Museum. It was fantastic. I went to get th fridge on the RV fixed at RecTec. If you are ever in St. Louis and need your rig fixed up? They are wonderful! They got my RV in quickly, fixed the short that was causing the fridge not to stay cool while driving and got me back on the road in about 2 hours. They had to pull up the bed in the back to fix it, so I say… well done guys! Also? Hat’s off to CruiseAmerica. They stayed with me every step of the way. I was *very* impressed with their customer service. I’ve read a lot of horror stories about cruiseamerica and I’m sorry that is what is out on the web, because so far? I have been impressed and have really enjoyed the trip so far. Of course I had the ability to drop the kids, bffC and cousin at the museum and wait while things got done, but the efficiency and such to *get* things done was all around impressive.

No pics of me in the waiting room. (Too bad, ‘Brad’ was both helpful and cute). But good pics of the kids at the museum:

We made bookmarks for all the wonderful people who donated to our cause! We’ll be trying to get those in the mail in the next few days! Yay!

Just too darn pretty for words!

So much to climb, so little time! After the museum, we decided to start our trip to Tulsa. On the way? We saw the infamous, “mine for stones” signs at Meramec Caverns in Stanton, Mo. Well, we HAD to stop and do a little mining. So I bought the minimonsters each a bag of dirt and we went ‘prospecting’.

Fun times and the kids LOVE looking at the stones and matching them up to the cards with the pictures.

After Meramec Caverns, I started to drive. And drive. And drive. About 11:30 I decided I’d had enough. We had another hour and a half to Tulsa. It was too long for everyone I stopped to get a room in Joplin, Mo. But the big Asian festival there and the tornado relief people had every single room filled. We all needed a hotel and a hot shower and solid bed, so we pushed on to Miami. Where apparently? All the other Asians and construction workers were pushing on. I stopped at a motel and got two of the last rooms in the city. Yay Oklahoma for the one nonsmoking room (which was smoking) and the smoking room (which was as advertised). bffC and Gman stayed in the single bed in the nonsmoking room and cousinN, Mads and I stayed in the double smoking room. And even though it took a while to get the room cool? It was a good night’s sleep. Just have to work in the goat chewing Mads hair in her dreams. Because she felt the need to kick *me* in an effort to make the goat stop. *chuckle*.

This morning we got up ready to eat and get on the road. CousinN is driving for the first time today. She’s pretty white knuckled and realizing this rig and the crosswinds aren’t friends. It’s pretty hard driving. At least we are out of the hills of the Ozarks. Those were killer with a full RV! Thank heavens for the ‘towing’ option which helped the engine keep cool.

We had breakfast at Buttered Bunns Café. Our waiter had the cutest Nashville accent. He was all, “Yes ma’am. I’ll get that for you right away, (insert adorable smile here).” He got a good tip. I’m just saying, 2 kids, 3 adults make for a needy group to feed!

Now? We’re on our way to Amarillo with cousinN driving.

It’s about 7 hours away. Not sure if we will stop in Amarillo or try to push on a couple more hours. It depends on how the kids are doing and how much we’ve needed to get up and out walking around and bathroom breaks and pain tolerance.

Thanks again everyone for all your love and support!

Happy Trails,

MaryKate