We are officially in the A Different Part of the Country.
We are in the land of individually-bagged pickles at gas stations, Confederate flags on front lawns, highways with toll booths that charge you the maximum when you get on the road and then hand you change when you get off the exit ramp, mega-churches with 500 foot-tall crosses, and fascinating centers of commerce where one can obtain a loan, a shotgun, and a valuable personal adornment all at the same time!
We left Kendra's house outside St. Louis this morning with a heavy hearts and bulging guts. She has truly carried on the spirit of our Italian grandmother; from the moment we set foot on her front lawn until the moment she kissed us goodbye, we experienced a constant stream of food, love, and gifts. I even made it out of there with a few new bras and a bathing suit top. Score! She and her husband, Andrew, sent us on our way this morning with fresh strawberries and a bunch of cold water bottles to keep us hydrated and healthy on the long trek to Oklahoma City. They are both so wonderful.
On the Missouri-Oklahama trail, we learned that:
- Boston drivers are NOT the most aggressive and angry ones out there. We were flipped many a bird for not going, like, at least 25 miles per hour over the speed limit while traveling in the left lane.
- There is a town called Lebanon in every state in the union.
- Your legs start to feel more and more like a newborn animal once you spend a certain amount of hours crammed into a Hyundai Accent. Our favorite thing to do when we stop for stretching breaks and / or gas is to stagger--bowlegged, swaggering, swaying in zig zags--while screeching "BABY FAWN! BABY FAWN!"
- The level of otherness that we experience when we enter public places with other humans increases at a rate directly proportional to the distance we travel.
- There is a gas station chain called "Kum N Go."in Oklahoma City.
After for driving for a bit this morning, we got that familiar rumbly in our tumblies [the hungry one, luckily, not the 'guhhhhhhhhhhhh we've been eating meat and bread for four day straight and I haven't pooped in three days' one] and decided to take the next exit we could find off Route 44 and find a suitable spot for lunch. We were hoping to find a place as magical as Topanga Lake.
We pulled onto a dusty road marked with a sign for the town of "Sleeper" with an arrow pointing us in the right direction. Uh, yes, this was exactly what we wanted. Sleeper, MO did not disappoint. The road quickly turned to dusty gravel, and we [at least, Emily and I] were launched into our rural South American traveling past. Small family farms lined the road to our right and left, separated by swaths of forest and clearings with skinny cows hiding in the shade of the trees. It was so beautiful and wonderfully reminiscent of another life and world we remembered, separately but together. We turned off the TomTom and the air conditioning, opened up the windows, and the thick humidity punched us in the face and chest. It felt so good to be so far away from highway. We wound around an old church, some sort of little store, and eventually made it back onto some sort of paved road and found the center of town.
We stopped at a closed down restaurant and ate our picnic lunch of pb and j, fruit, and the last of the Stromboli from Jonas' cousins house. We sat against the crumbling building, munched and refueled, and had an impromptu dance party with the speakers of the Hyundai pumped way up. I wonder why the locals always look at us so strangely.
Later in the afternoon, Emily and I bought a 32 ounce cup (barrel?) of Coca Cola at a gas station. It was the smallest serving they offered. We scoffed at the excess of the concept, sucked it down, and then refilled it once before getting back in the car.
Tonight we arrived in Norman, Ok--right outside Oklahoma City--to stay with Emily's dear friend Megan from Brandeis. She and her lovely boyfriend Alex took us out to eat and entertained us like true sports, even though they both have to work at 8am tomorrow.
We'll be in Albuquerque tomorrow if all goes according to plan!
We are in the land of individually-bagged pickles at gas stations, Confederate flags on front lawns, highways with toll booths that charge you the maximum when you get on the road and then hand you change when you get off the exit ramp, mega-churches with 500 foot-tall crosses, and fascinating centers of commerce where one can obtain a loan, a shotgun, and a valuable personal adornment all at the same time!
We left Kendra's house outside St. Louis this morning with a heavy hearts and bulging guts. She has truly carried on the spirit of our Italian grandmother; from the moment we set foot on her front lawn until the moment she kissed us goodbye, we experienced a constant stream of food, love, and gifts. I even made it out of there with a few new bras and a bathing suit top. Score! She and her husband, Andrew, sent us on our way this morning with fresh strawberries and a bunch of cold water bottles to keep us hydrated and healthy on the long trek to Oklahoma City. They are both so wonderful.
On the Missouri-Oklahama trail, we learned that:
- Boston drivers are NOT the most aggressive and angry ones out there. We were flipped many a bird for not going, like, at least 25 miles per hour over the speed limit while traveling in the left lane.
- There is a town called Lebanon in every state in the union.
- Your legs start to feel more and more like a newborn animal once you spend a certain amount of hours crammed into a Hyundai Accent. Our favorite thing to do when we stop for stretching breaks and / or gas is to stagger--bowlegged, swaggering, swaying in zig zags--while screeching "BABY FAWN! BABY FAWN!"
- The level of otherness that we experience when we enter public places with other humans increases at a rate directly proportional to the distance we travel.
- There is a gas station chain called "Kum N Go."in Oklahoma City.
After for driving for a bit this morning, we got that familiar rumbly in our tumblies [the hungry one, luckily, not the 'guhhhhhhhhhhhh we've been eating meat and bread for four day straight and I haven't pooped in three days' one] and decided to take the next exit we could find off Route 44 and find a suitable spot for lunch. We were hoping to find a place as magical as Topanga Lake.
We pulled onto a dusty road marked with a sign for the town of "Sleeper" with an arrow pointing us in the right direction. Uh, yes, this was exactly what we wanted. Sleeper, MO did not disappoint. The road quickly turned to dusty gravel, and we [at least, Emily and I] were launched into our rural South American traveling past. Small family farms lined the road to our right and left, separated by swaths of forest and clearings with skinny cows hiding in the shade of the trees. It was so beautiful and wonderfully reminiscent of another life and world we remembered, separately but together. We turned off the TomTom and the air conditioning, opened up the windows, and the thick humidity punched us in the face and chest. It felt so good to be so far away from highway. We wound around an old church, some sort of little store, and eventually made it back onto some sort of paved road and found the center of town.
We stopped at a closed down restaurant and ate our picnic lunch of pb and j, fruit, and the last of the Stromboli from Jonas' cousins house. We sat against the crumbling building, munched and refueled, and had an impromptu dance party with the speakers of the Hyundai pumped way up. I wonder why the locals always look at us so strangely.
Later in the afternoon, Emily and I bought a 32 ounce cup (barrel?) of Coca Cola at a gas station. It was the smallest serving they offered. We scoffed at the excess of the concept, sucked it down, and then refilled it once before getting back in the car.
Tonight we arrived in Norman, Ok--right outside Oklahoma City--to stay with Emily's dear friend Megan from Brandeis. She and her lovely boyfriend Alex took us out to eat and entertained us like true sports, even though they both have to work at 8am tomorrow.
We'll be in Albuquerque tomorrow if all goes according to plan!
Megan!!
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