It Isn't Rocket Surgery, You Know

"Andrew, how is Natasha doing? I don't know, I don't speak cat!"

Hey folks. It's Sunday morning and a beautiful one in KC.
The trip started off well. After the fright of the randomly opening car top carrier, I've since almost broken my wrists slamming it shut to make sure it's secure. It's held its load so far. The drive up the 15/215 to the 40 was uneventful. We didn't know it at the time, but the last known Starbucks west of Albuquerque is somewhere in Riverside California. Wish we had known that. Funny sign when we got on the 40 heading east. "Wilmington, NC 2554 miles." Not sure why. Maybe that is where I-40 ends.
Driving through Arizona was well, pretty boring. Saw some changing landscape, but hey, it's central Arizona. No Starbucks. OH! We did have excitement at the Dairy Queen where we stopped for lunch and to pay $3.02/gallon for gas. There seemed to be a white trash Stepford wives convention there. Further on down the road, at another gas/potty stop, Carol was able to get her weight, lucky numbers, and fortune told from a machine in that bathroom. Fortune read, "Don't worry, have faith."
We made it to Gallup New Mexico Friday night. Stayed in what Gallup, or Best Western, considers a non-smoking room. YICK! It was disgusting. We all woke up with horrible sinus issues. After a mediocre breakfast of oily eggs, greasy bacon, and actually, according to Andrew & Carol, good pancakes, we headed down to the Hampton Inn, where we should've stayed and snuck in Natasha, and picked up a directory. I asked the lady at the front desk where I could get some good coffee. She made the funniest face and said, "Not around here." I said, "so, it's Albuquerque then?" She laughed and agreed. We headed the nearly 140 miles for our caffeine fix. Mom had provided us with the locations of 2 Strobos, so Carol called one of them as we neared town. Barista Chris was our saviour and directed us straight to them. Radio Shack happened to be in the same parking lot as coffee. That story is the battery on the DVD player went kaput about the time we hit the 40. Andrew was stuck listening to Sirius satalite, reading his books, doing his Leap Frog book things, playing with Natasha, etc. He hasn't wanted to play any road trip car games yet. After dinner, we decided to whip out the car adapter for the DVD player. It wouldn't fit in the lighter plug. We pondered, compared it to other adapters, tried to plug it into the 2-way plug, etc. Carol, who was driving, couldn't investigate, so it was up to me. Short story long, back to Radio Shack. We walked in, and I asked if they had an adapter that would fit. They were perlexed because adapters are universal in size. Carol mentioned it looks like there is a cover or something on it. Gee, guess what. There is a protective cover on the dern (keeping this family friendly) thing. Who does that?? Our story is, hey it was dark. Carol, our resident physicist/engineer (don't get to play that card often) was driving and is absolving herself of all responsibility the night before. Now we just have to find the remote.
Saturday was a great day for seeing things. We saw several moose crossing signs. Well, it looked like the moose was just standing around. The deer were leaping in the deer crossing signs. We made it through Texas and Oklahoma in about 2 hours - thank God. Back road highway 54 is great for getting in and out of those 2 states as quickly as possible. Now we know why folks don't seem too concerned about going to Iraq. . . We were blessed with little traffic on that 2-lane highway. No one joined me in my rousing rendition of "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" when we crossed the Kansas state line. Perhaps they were too busy looking at the folks washing their barbeques at the car wash, trying to find Dorothy's house in Liberal, and the Dalton Gang hideout in Meade. Good thing there was a huge sign at the intersection in town pointing the way to the hideout. Lots and lots of cows. Cargill cattle care/feeding. This stumped us. Is there cow day care? There were two distinct sections for the cows. Is one for the full day program for working parents, and the other free range (fewer cows) for the richer or part time cows? Then we saw another sign for Cattle Pens. Now, are these for writing on or with? Ok, so maybe city girls shouldn't be reading signs and billboards in western Kansas. When Andrew asked for about the ten zillionth time "where are we?" and was told "the middle of nowhere" he retorted "no, not the middle of nowhere, there's a gas station." The best billboard we did see was upon entering Wichita. Carol's friend Sue had looked up a couple of Starbucks locations along the 54 in Wichita. I was about ready to call one when we saw this white signage with a halo afixed and Carol heard angels singing. "You know it's been awhile. Exit West St and turn left." It was beautiful! Yes, Strobo has it's own billboard. They know the most recent one for the folks traveling Highway 54 was in Albuquerque. After our much needed fix, we decided to head the remaining 175 miles into Kansas City. Carol called the hotel where I had made a reservation for Sunday and Monday nights to see if there was a room for Saturday night. Yep. We rolled into the hotel around 12:30 Sunday morning. I have wifi in the room, and life is good. Oh and for the record, Nextel scored zero on reception in very, very remote areas against Verizon. . .
Natasha has become a lap kitty. Her new favorite place, before she discovered Andrew's Thomas the Tank Engine pillow in the backback window, was on my lap. She also spent some time on Carol's lap. She has been a really good cat.
Off to brunch with Uncle Bill and hopefully a kid or two.
Thanks for sticking with this long-winded prose.