Road Trip

[OrlandoMike]

I will be on the lookout for a Waffle House. I will bring some Clorox wipes.

And quarters! You're gonna need some quarters for the juke box!

 

[jamieandben]

You're gonna FLY out with us Mary (Popins)

Im going to be doped to high heaven.
PILLS... GOOD.

 

[wallyb]

Im going to be doped to high heaven.
PILLS... GOOD.

Fine. Whatever it takes.
But. I'm not sharing mine!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

And quarters! You're gonna need some quarters for the juke box!

SHHH!!!! If DS hears that they have a juke box he will never leave the place!

We didn't really see many Waffle Houses. We saw one, like an hour after we left home.

Want a mini trip report?

We left the house at 7 AM. At 8 AM I exited and stopped in a Dairy Queen parking lot to call Member Services. Dairy Queen is not open at 8 AM, FYI.

SCORE!! Booked our concierge villa for Gay Days! I will have to keep calling back to add days, but we have secured our first week. Got back on the highway.

It was cloudy through TX, and the road was wet enough to be a little slick, but we were moving along.

We crossed into Oklahoma at 8:30 AM. Then the real fun started! It POURED rain. I mean POURED!! NO visibility, people flying by in the left lane going at least 80 MPH. My question is HOW do people maintain control of their vehicles going THAT fast? Yes, I can see the speed limit is 70. But I could barely see the car in front of me, and I couldn't see the car in front of him AT ALL. It was raining so hard we couldn't hear the CD. It was like driving through a dishwasher for 400 miles. Those closures where the road was only one lane? Those were great. It rained EXTRA HARD during those parts.

We stopped at McDonald's about 9:50 for breakfast. (No Waffle House.) We didn't make it to Oklahoma City until close to 11 AM, and we didn't cross the Kansas border until 2 PM. Brutal.

When I die and go to hell the devil will make me spend eternity driving back and forth across Oklahoma in the pouring rain. I told DS it's a little slice of hell right here in America!

We only stopped one other time to put gas in the car somewhere on the KS turnpike. I was pleased that we didn't get lost, but really, it's a straight shot for the most part. We did call my mom at one point because there was this LONG piece of highway with no signs. I kind of thought maybe we missed something. But we didn't. We just hadn't been driving long enough.

Weather is supposed to be gross for days.

We made it to my mom's house at 4:11 PM. (Yes, more than NINE hours to get here.) Pizza with relatives last night. Today I am taking DS to Kansas City to see my cousin & her family. I don't think Mom is coming with us, but we'll be back here later tonight.

DS saw his first real lightning bug last night, so that was kind of cool.

HAPPY 4th of JULY, FRIENDS! Be safe out there today!!

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

What a great mom and daughter you are! time with Gramma and a first time sighting of fireflies -- priceless memories for your DS

----
re:dips that drive 80+mph in the driving rain -- they DON'T maintain ANY kind of control and pose a serious hazard to themselves and others. Calling the State Police w/ a vehicle description and approximate location may be a viable option when you see something like that -- they generally take this kinda stuff very seriously -- particularly on a holiday weekend when there is so much traffic on the roads.

When driving visibility is low, the best thing you can do is pull over on the shoulder as far as you can and turn off your lights (So nobody following you thinks you're still on the road and rear-ends you.)

 

[Sphyrna]

Wait, you stopped at Dairy Queen to book your Disney stay?? OMG that's too funny!! But I'm glad you scored a concierge villa!

I'm also glad you survived the treacherous driving conditions! I think I would have taken the first exit and found a place to wait it out. I remember when I moved from Pgh to Miami and was driving down the rain became very heavy in GA. It was about 6:00 and I decided to just stop for the night. I planned to go a little further but with the rain I didn't want to chance it. I found a hotel room and was watching the news and found out why the rain was so heavy...it was a tropical storm!

Hope you enjoy your trip and have better driving conditions on the way home!

 

[OrlandoMike]

Wait, you stopped at Dairy Queen to book your Disney stay?? OMG that's too funny!!

Post of the month!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The thing with the speeders is that it wasn't just ONE, it was DOZENS. The good thing was that there was really very little traffic.

Had I pulled over to wait it out we would still be sitting there, on the side of the road, in Oklahoma Hell.

So today we had breakfast at the very swanky GOLDEN CORRAL. (There were no parking spaces at IHOP.) Mom did come with us, because DS let out a howl when she said she was going to stay home. Drove to Kansas City (no rain, just clouds). My cousin and her DD took us to the Legends shopping mall. We didn't buy ANYTHING except ice cream cones, which is really not like me AT ALL, but we couldn't find anything we wanted to buy.

Went back to my cousin's where we had a cook-out with her BIL and his family. It was very nice - way too much food. We stayed and talked with them until almost 8 PM, which, it turned out, was later than we should have stayed. The rain on the way back to Topeka was BRUTAL. Luckily it wasn't the entire way, but it was more than enough.

No big fireworks for us tonight. But the people down the street are intent on setting off fireworks until one of them loses a limb, so we'll see. DS is just mesmerized by the fact that fireworks are legal here.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Monday morning in Topeka. Pouring rain. Not sure what we're going to do today. Tonight my aunt is making dinner for us.

DS was moping yesterday because he misses DH, but he said he doesn't want to go home tomorrow. So we'll stay until Wednesday.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Added 2 more nights to our June ressies. Just 5 or 6 more to go, depending on if we stay 14 or 15 nights. I need to talk to DH about that. We need to decide if we're going to try for concierge the whole time or move to Kidani for Week 2. I guess I will keep adding concierge nights until the availability runs out and go from there.

10:30 AM on Monday in Topeka. We are all still sitting around in our pajamas trying to decide what we're going to do today.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Who knew that those "poppers" you throw on the concrete are like the gateway drug of fireworks? My mom gave DS a couple of packs of poppers. He loved them!

Tonight we went to my aunt's house for dinner. She had some industrial strength poppers that sounded like gunshots. OK, ran through 2 boxes of those, plus some of those "snakes" that you light on fire. Then my aunt brought out some things that you light on fire and they buzz around and change color. Well, THAT was so super fun that my aunt gave DS some money and told my sister to drive him to the fireworks stand. I jumped in the car with them because the 2 of them unattended at the firework stand would have been bad. (My sister is only 18.)

We bought stuff that had to be ignited but did NOT become airborn. Whistling race cars, colored smoke bombs, sparklers, some really bright flashing fire things, some other stuff I can't remember. DS LOVED it. He had a really good time tonight. There's just something about lighting stuff on fire...

Now he is in the basement playing darts with my mother. I'm going to bed.

 

[OrlandoMike]

Who knew that those "poppers" are like the gateway drug? My mom gave DS a couple of packs of poppers. He loved them!

OK who wants to tackle this one?

 

[wallyb]

industrial strength poppers.

Where do I get some of THAT!!!!!?????

 

[rpmdfw]

OK who wants to tackle this one?

Not me. I'm just gonna sit back and watch.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

You people.

All firework sales had to stop by 8 PM last night, so I would imagine we will not be replenishing our popper supply anytime soon. I should have taken a picture of the box. It was yellow.

The best part was when I threw one near DS and he screamed like a girl. Classic.

 

[OrlandoMike]

so I would imagine we will not be replenishing our popper supply anytime soon.

I'm sure Mark and Steven can help you locate some Poppers in your area!

 

[zeitzeuge]

I'm sure Mark and Steven can help you locate some Poppers in your area!

*bow chicka wow wow*

Oh yeah......we can score you so poppers..... Oh yeah....

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

*bow chicka wow wow*

Oh yeah......we can score you so poppers..... Oh yeah....

If I wanted *THAT* kind of poppers I am sure I could find them.

 

[PghLybrt]

Funny how they can always change something so innocent , isn't it?

Are fireworks that go airborn legal wher you are? They are not here, not that it stops anybody.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Funny how they can always change something so innocent , isn't it?

Are fireworks that go airborn legal wher you are? They are not here, not that it stops anybody.

In TX ALL fireworks are illegal - even stuff like sparklers.

In Topeka apparently all sorts of fireworks are legal. The stand we went to had stuff that flew in the air, but I didn't want anything that unpredictable since none of us are very good at the whole firework thing. We mostly just had stuff that spun on the ground. The packages were all pretty clear about explaining what the thing inside was supposed to do (sparks, spinning, etc.) so that was helpful! We got a really cute little Chinese one that popped up into a pagoda at the end. If we come back for the 4th again we might be a little more brave with our purchases. Since the deadline for stopping firework sales was really close the selection was kind of picked over. But DS had the absolute best time, so $9 worth of NON-flying fireworks was good.