Flatness

*Disclaimer* We tried to post this earlier this afternoon when it was actually happening, but shockingly, there was scatty internet.....

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Ok! So we're in San Jon New Mexico and we had an incident. And by incident I mean we had somewhat of a nervous breakdown. I was driving and driving and basically got down to 55 miles left in my tank. And this is all right before we hit some flats that lasted til...well...we're still driving on them. But since I am blogging you can safely assume that we're OK. But here's the fun part. We got to a gas station and it had 90 89 and 87 octane. My car is 91 and up. But then we noticed a lil' piece of paper that said only 87 and diesel were available anyway. So we said "Oh crap" Got back on the highway, and tried to make it to the next exit to see if they had gas. Now for those of you reading who haven't made it out to these very inhabited areas of the mid-west, I have a secret for you...they aren't inhabited...by anyone...or anything...no animals, no electric...no shrubs higher than a foot, and least of all premium gas. Needless to say we took one look at the desert of nothingness that lay before us, made a "U-B", and prayed we could make it back to a gas station that had premium.

We got down to only 44 so it was ok, but we were nervous. We took video but since uploading a video out here in the middle of nowhere is near impossible we decided to bless you with some pictures.

































After driving on 40 forever and a day we decided that there was no possibility of civilization, decent restaurants, and least of all...cops. Turns out cops are everywhere. Now, I say cops are everywhere because we passed 3 signs that said one thing and one thing only... "COPS ARE EVERYWHERE" I felt like taking one of those long dramatic looks around the terrain to prove to a seemingly non-existant audience that the sign was indeed wrong and in fact there were no cops anywhere.

Ok now we're really hungry...just passed some biker from PA...random. Also... we were thinking about eloping cuz it turns out Vegas is only 20 miles off the path. But then we thought no...our bloggers might not approve. *sigh* Well signing off in Santa Rosa, NM. Stay classy blog readers.

Day 3, afternoon

We're finally through Oklahoma and cutting through the top of Texas. Texas is flat and open. And there are a lot wind farms, because it's very windy! We stopped at a rest stop and took some cool pictures.







For the past three hours we've been playing a variation of 20 questions, where one person picks a person, real or fictitious, and the other has to figure out who it is through yes or no questions. It's been rather amusing. Right now, I'm trying to figure out someone Derek picked- a male, fictitious movie character, not a human, animal, plant, bug, or machine. Not a cartoon. Not religious or spiritual. Obscure. In a movie I've seen multiple times. Has human characteristics/features, but not magical....not a gnome. From a suspenseful and dramatic movie. Brownish/black skin.

I have to go figure this out. Leave comments if you have a guess.

Day 3, morning

As requested by Derek, a picture of the Shelby.

We're back on the road. We drove until about 10:30 last night, a good way past Tulsa before we called it quits. We past Oklahoma City and we're now in Yukon, OK. The GPS says it's 16 hours and 5 minutes to Sedona, AZ. We may not make it there today, but we're okay with that.

The good news is, we found Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast. Huzzah! And we've updated our license plate list!

1. Pennsylvania
2. New Jersey
3. Michigan
4. Florida
5. New York
6. West Virginia
7. Illinois
8. Minnesota
9. Ohio
10. Tennessee
11. Oklohoma
12. Virginia
13. Missouri
14. Maine
15. California
16. Kentucky
17. Maryland
18. Wisconsin
19. Colorado
20. Texas
21. Iowa
22. North Carolina
23. Nebraska
24. Massachusetts
25. New Hampshire
26. South Dakota
27. Georgia
28. Kansas
29. Arkansas
30. South Carolina
31. New Mexico
32. Arizona
33. Oregon

We realized we didn't see some east coast/New England states while we were out that way, like Rhode Island, Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

Derek is aggravated that the road is very bumpy and that Garth Brooks has his own boulevard here, since Yukon is apparently his home town.

This bumpiness is making it hard to type. I'm going back on beast alert.

Day 2, evening

Well, we're finally out of Missouri. It seemed like we were in that state all day. We passed into Oklahoma about a half hour ago and there was much rejoicing. Good thing we don't seem to run out of inventing ways to entertain ourselves. We played some more rounds of guess the movie soundtrack this afternoon and Derek did really well. He's getting really good at identifying the composer because of style/technique, which is important for his upcoming awesome career. He also tolerates my short outbursts of musical theater like a pro.

We also played the alphabet game twice- and I won both times :) That shows significant improvement since our road trips last summer and this winter, when I don't think I won once!

We stopped for gas around 6 o'clock and found a credit card on the ground. Being awesome, we googled the person's name and found her phone number. Derek was really excited about making this woman's day! Too bad she didn't pick up...so we left the card with the gas station owner.

We also stopped at Dairy Queen, which I need to mention for Alison and Juli's sake, was a Grill n' Chill and it was located next to a Sonic. Amazing. There was only one person in line in front of us but it took 10 minutes to get two small things. Good thing Derek entertained me by breaking out his southern accent for the benefit of the drive thru girl. Only he forgot to use it at the end when she confused us by turning his ice cream upside down to prove the spoon wouldn't fall out. I think she's on to us.

Derek was excited when we saw a Shelby GT 500. We followed it for awhile because Derek wanted to see/hear the guy drive really fast, but he didn't really deliver, so Derek did it for him in his Lexus as he hunted down a Chick Fila for me. :)

It's after 9 right now and it is seriously dark without the light pollution of big cities. Too bad it's really cloudy. I bet the stars are amazing out here. Hopefully we'll have clear skies in Arizona!

Kacie- I've been on serious "beast alert", but so far all we've seen are cows and horses. And I saw two armadillos. Still holding out for the buffalo!

We are currently in Adair, Oklahoma with the goal of making it at least to Tulsa tonight, which is another 42 miles away. No sweat. We'll probably drive about an hour past that to shave some of the drive off of tomorrow. We are hoping to make it to Sedona, AZ tomorrow evening, where we'll stay with my Godmother's brother and his wife. But it's about 1000 miles b/t Tulsa and Sedona, so that could be a tall order if we don't push ourselves a little tonight. We are hoping to take all of Thursday off from driving to Los Angelos to explore Arizona.

Hooray, the speed limit was raised to 75! We're in business.

In other news, we found the long anticipated license plate #30 with South Carolina! Huzzah! Since it's pitch black, the game is suspended until tomorrow. I know you're as anxious as me to hunt down the remaining 20.

It's hard to believe we woke up in Chicago this morning. Halfway there.

A Missouri Storm

Alright this blog is self-explanatory. I took some shots of the aftermath of the aforementioned nasty storm. Enjoy!

And here is a Loogen. A rarity and something you'll want to keep if you find one...
this one's mine...no touchy

Meeting up with ol' friends!

Aha! We are finally on our way to Tulsa. Actually, we put Sedona AZ in my GPS just to get pointed in the right direction. I feel so basic on this trip. We're in a nice car and yet I feel like I'm camping. We keep making ridiculous comments like..."Oh, where are we going now?" And the crazy thing is, we ask these questions in the middle of nowhere. Like right now I'll press a button on my GPS to find out that we're in...St. Louis. Ok let's recap.

We left Chicago. We Drove. We stopped once to pee. And then crazy random life occurred and we met up with my ol' friend Jon Hill. Jon lives in Litchfield IL. Jon was my roomate in Australia and a good friend it turns out. Anywho. We met up at Tuby Tuesday's and enjoyed a fresh salad bar, chicken parm, chicken and broccoli quiche, and a summer ale. We left Ruby's looking forward to the open road. Here's some pics of Jon and I!




















Alright! Well after meeting up with Jon we headed out and hit a nasty storm in Edwardsville, Missouri. I had a video but loading it whilst on the road is a pain! Instead you just get me telling you about it.

While we're at it, Loogen and myself would like to give a shout out to our biggest fan: Genevieve Newberry! Ok moving on. Once we got passed the storm we passed St. Louis...check out the famous arch! Notice the smoke in the background...some building was on fire I think...















Ok...now for my sports fans out there here is Busch stadium!
















And now for the very anticipated License Plate Update!

1. Pennsylvania
2. New Jersey
3. Michigan
4. Florida
5. New York
6. West Virginia
7. Illinois
8. Minnesota
9. Ohio
10. Tennessee
11. Oklohoma
12. Virginia
13. Missouri
14. Maine
15. California
16. Kentucky
17. Maryland
18. Wisconsin
19. Colorado
20. Texas
21. Iowa
22. North Carolina
23. Nebraska
24. Massachusetts
25. New Hampshire
26. South Dakota
27. Georgia
28. Kansas
29. Arkansas

And we're waiting for the long expected 30th!!!

I'd like to take a second to say driving across the country rocks. Everyone should do it. But make sure you do it with a Loogen...cuz that makes it better. Ok we're shooting for Tulsa! Signing off for now! Check back with us soon!!

Derka

Day 2, morning

Elwood: "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas. Half a pack of cigarettes. It's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses."

Jake: "Hit it."

On the road again!

We came into Chicago last night around 9:00 and took the Skyway to Lake Shore Drive. That took us through the side streets of Chicago so we could see some of it. Then we realized it looked a lot like the sides streets of every other city and we got back on the main highway to get to Sarah's quicker. We found her street and were amazed- it was like being on a residential street of Princeton but in Chicago. Really nice area. As we got out of the car at 9:30, I realized how light it was out still and then it clicked for us that it was only 8:30 here. Hooray!

Sarah's apartment was awesome! Her roommate/cousin works at Pier 1, so it was decorated really nicely and had great charm. Here's her place from the outside:



Derek and I were starving and I really wanted to have Chicago pizza so I could feel like we did at least something to experience this city, so we ordered deep dish stuffed pizza from a place around the corner. Aaaaamazing! It was truly a pizza PIE because it was about 3 inches thick with all the layers: crust, dough, cheese/toppings, dough, then sauce. Very full!





We hung out with Sarah, her fiance Paul, and her cousin Casey for the night and then got some much needed sleep. Sarah had to leave early for work, but Derek made me chocolate pancakes for breakfast, which were soooo yummy. Gold star.

We are now on the road to Litchfield, IL (near St. Louis) to have lunch with Derek's friend Jon, who (like Sarah), he met on his semester in Australia. We are again seeing how much we don't know:

D: "Hey, look at the Sears Tower poking out of the clouds."
L: "Wow, cool!"
D: "Oh, wait. No, I think that one is the Sears Tower" (points in front of us)
L: "That's the one I was looking at."
D: "No, not that one. THAT one."
L: "That's the one I was looking at."
D: "No, you weren't. It's THAT one."
*new building appears from behind trees*
L: "Oh, how do you know that's the Sears Tower and not the other one?"
D: "Cause' it's taller than the other one."
L: "Well, how do you know it's taller?"
D: "Cause' it looks taller."
L: "Yeah, but we're closer to that one, so it may just look taller."
D: "That's true. Well...one of them is the Sears Tower!"

In conclusion, this may or may not be the Sears Tower. Enjoy.



Did you know that Chicago is a candidate city for 2016 Olympics? A billboard just taught us that.