Irby Vaca Day 1

Well we did it.  Six of us piled into our suburban and drove across Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and into Illinois. Twelve hours in the car.  Laurie was the trooper who drove most of the way because she can get easily car sick if she attempts to read or watch a movie.  So, instead of being bored, she drives.  The reason for our trip is to drop in on Laurie's cousin Emily and her husband Kyle who live in Granite City, IL.  We are excited to be here for the first time since they moved here 4 years ago.  Wanda and Jerry have visited once prior, but were glad to join us.  Tommy, Nece, and Brooke met us here so we are all together under one roof.  Should be exciting.


Story of the day:  We were driving through Oklahoma and Jerry and Wanda recommended we stop at a McDonald's located on a turnpike on I-44.  This particular restaurant has been there quite a while because Laurie remembers eating there MANY years ago on the way to Branson.  The plans to stop there began being formulated in Lawton, OK and it was decided that this restaurant is between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  Well the road from Oklahoma City to Tulsa came and went with no McDonald's.  So, SURELY the restaurant is "right up here."  Well over 50 miles fly by and still no McDonald's.  We are now all getting really hungry and our bladders filling up at a rapid rate.  The McDonald's turns up 3/4 of the way from Tulsa to Joplin, MO.  Now, I am not a huge fan of McDonald's, but I had never been so happy to see a set of those golden arches in my life!

What I learned: 

• Oklahoma is a GREEDY state!  All the way up the interstate were toll roads, two of which were $4.00 tolls.  We spent nearly $20 to drive through Oklahoma and the roads were still crappy.  
• The landscape on the drive was beautiful!  Even Oklahoma had small mountains and green rolling pastures.  Missouri is incredible from Lebanon, MO on up to St. Louis.  Wonderful green contoured landscape and TREES.  Things we are not used to seeing in our part of Texas.
• The movie "Where the Wild Things Are" is worth a viewing.  Very interesting take on the children's book.  This was my viewing entertainment for the day.  I am still reading "The Idiot" as well.
• We stopped at a DQ in Lebanon, MO and I have never seen so many white people working at a DQ.

Oh, well, off to bed and in the morning the real adventure begins!

Well, Hello Dolly...

Well, we just had a ill-planned trip. My brother's family and my family coordinate our trips to Harlingen (Christmas and Summer) so that we can all be there together. With our daughters in adolescence, the calendars fill up pretty quickly. So the only time we could all be together was SUPPOSED to be Saturday through Wednesday. It became clear by Sunday that we might have to leave a little sooner than expected because of a little hurricane brewing in the Gulf. By Monday, my step-mother was urging us to leave on Tuesday.

Judging from the initial reports on Sunday and Monday, I wasn't so sure we were going to encounter more than some harsh wind and rain and thought everyone was just a little paranoid.

We decided to go ahead and cut our trip short but not without going to our favorite Mexican food at Las Vegas Cafe. YUMMMM!!!!

I am glad we came back! My uncle and step-mother both had some damage and have been without power since 10:00 Wednesday morning. All are safe... Hot and bored... but safe.

Meanwhile, we had a great lazy last day of vacation yesterday while my family nearly blew away. Went to see Get Smart together ("that's not cheese!"). As we were leaving the theater, Seth offered his insight that it Get Smart was probably the best choice of movie for our entire family to see together since the boys didn't want to see Mamma Mia and the girls don't want to see Hancock. Dad is the only one who wanted to see Dark Knight. I still CAN'T WAIT to see it!!!

I liked having a day at home to recover from travel before going back to work.