Day Seven - May 25, 2009

Sorry these next few are so delayed (sorry Mom) but easy (& free) internet is hard to come by when you're on the road. But here we go...

Early start today because we knew that we were going to have to drive a LOOOOOONG way to get to Denver from St. Louis.

-6:41 am: Making moves early in the morning!! Made a pit stop for McD's, which included a little detour through the hizood...
-8:33 am: Passed Jefferson City aka the Missouri capital (you're welcome for the mini-geography lesson)

Side note: Who knew Missouri highways were not numbered but lettered? Getting directions that include the J or HH are not uncommon...

-8:46 am: Helloooooooooooooooooooo Kent! As we pass through Columbia, MO.

In case you were wondering Olean, MO is the home of the annual testicle festival...

Little known fact.... Blue Springs, MO is the home of David Cook, American Idol 2008. In honor we had a sing-a-long to "Light On"

-10:36 am: Liberty, MO.... Hi JLibz!!!!!
-10:50 am: SO LONG MISSOURI, WILKOMMEN KANSAS!
-11:46 am: California Avenue.... such a tease.
-12:30 pm: Red Robin for lunch out on the patio, which was nice especially with the view of all the nothingness in Kansas

If you are ever looking for the first stretch of interstate opened in the U.S.A., you can find it in Kansas. We know. We drove on it.

Also in Kansas, Abilene specifically, is the home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. What up Ike!

-3:00 pm: Experienced a little bit of non-flatness in Kansas. A GI-NORMOUS windmill farm, probably big enough to power all that is in Kansas.

Somewhere about 3pm MRSA (aka Marissa) fell asleep, so I (Stacy) had to take note, drive, sing, and generally keep Dot company. You're welcome Marissa.

- 3:30 pm: Deer in the Road!!! I had to drive on the shoulder to go around this deer. I thought it was dead, but then it raised it's head! YAY!

- 3:42 pm: Another hometown... Bob Dole is from Russell, Kansas. Each of these cities feels the need to announce these things to the 6 people that pass on the highway each day.... (and we have passed them along for your learning pleasure, and because there was nothing really else to talk about)

- 4:30 pm: We stopped in Hays for coffee and to use the potty. Marissa took over behind the wheel

- 6:00 pm: TORNADO WATCH!!!!!! ... ominous clouds... looking out for any funnels! Megan's texts, not very reassuring... ("I just looked it up and it says May has historically the most tornadoes"... and... "it says Oakley has 15% greater amount of tornadoes than overall US. It also says it has 3 registered sex offenders"... to which Marissa replied "Thanks Megan. I hope I don't get raped in the middle of a tornado." ... and Meg said "hahaha that would be the worst case scenario" ...hahahaha ohhhh goodness.)

-6:02 pm: Marissa - "That is DEFINITELY tornado weather. Not to freak you out or anything. Let's get out of here immediately." Another reassuring comment from friends. Thanks guys.

- 6:04 pm: Enter darkness of storm clouds. Marissa - "Maybe I should call my mom and tell her I love her." I'm sorry, what? all in fun, but it was actually somewhat frightening... I reassured Megan that if I saw a funnel of wind I'd jump in the ditch at the side of the road.

-6:15 pm: EXTREME RAIN. (again.)

-6:31 pm: Entering Mountain Time Zone... clock goes back an hour again! we keep gaining time!

- 5:50 pm: Stopped for a few gallons at McBs in Goodland, KS.... For both of us this was our first experience with a full-service station... we weren't really sure what to do... we just waited in Dot for a while... the guy finally came out, and turns out they were closed. Dude helped us anyway, but then left the gas cap off. FAIL.

- 6:00 pm: Stopped to fill up for real this time. YAY self-serve!

- 6:22 pm: SEE YA KANSAS (wouldn't wanna be ya!) Welcome to "Colorful Colorado" :)

- soooooo for the first....long time... in CO I forgot we actually made it to Colorado... aka it looks JUST like Kansas.... zzzzzzzzzzz.

- 6:55 pm: Dot turned up her own radio... Creepy!

- 8:02 pm: Stretch break. It's cold out! (this was a new experience... usually we're peeling our sweaty clothes off the back of our legs and back... gross I know.)

- 8:55 pm: Enter Aurora... pronounced by me ArrrrrArrrrAh. Did I mention how it's pouring down rain!? AGAIN. TERRIBLE LIFE... the freeway somewhere you've never been when you can't see the lane lines... noooooo good.

- 8:58 pm: Passed Alameda Street. Are we back in LA already?

- 9:02 pm: Passed Gander Mtn (it's a store of some kind I think) HI POPS!!!!!

- 9:04 pm: I spy Denver's Metro System

- 9:09 pm: Enter Greenwood village limit (Almost there!!)

- 9:14 pm: Arrival at Sleep Inn!!!! WHEWWWWWWWW!

OH BUT WAIT.... the day is not over yet.... Marissa needs to take over to recount the rest of our evening... Get ready.


So after checking in we decide to go get food... oh Grand Slam Sports Cafe sounds good - WRONG! We walked in expecting to sit down and have a nice quick dinner before going to sleep but we were (rudely!) informed that the kitchen was closed. But no worries because there was an Arbys right down the road. Oh wait.... only the drive-thru is open but remember when we were driving a large Budget truck. Arbys "strongly advises large trucks not to use drive-thru due to sharp curve." Since we weren't trying to get stuck at Arbys we were on the search for something, anything, else to eat. WENDYS! Across the street! So after the biggest "neighborhood" turn around ever, we make it to Wendys. Crossing our fingers that we can make it through the drive-thru and that it is open... SUCCESS! After getting our food, and laughing hysterically due to fatigue and the ridiculousness of the situation, we returned to eat and crashhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Biggest fail of the day: Forgot Louie in St. Louis :(