A Trip to Remember: Day Two

Saturday morning, we all popped out of bed bright and early at 6:30am. Our bodies were still on Eastern Standard Time, even though we were now in the Central Time Zone, and we took advantage of it.  For a $80 per night hotel room, the breakfast was fabulous.  Scrambled eggs, bacon, turkey sausage, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, yogurt, donuts, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and made to order pancakes were all ready and waiting for us.  We ate until we couldn't eat anymore, and then packed ourselves into the van. 

Our plan was to head south and then west before circling back to Colorado.  We were surprised to find as we drove that we were on Route 66.  THE Route 66!  See?  You thought I was joking when I told you this trip had no plan.  We were literally planning it as we went along.  Nash was clearly less than impressed, though.

Heading southwest through Missouri, we traversed the rolling hills with about a zillion semi truck drivers.  Speaking of these huge trucks, if you don't already know, pass on the left, not on the right.

"passing side, suicide"

We came through Uranus, Missouri, home of the Uranus Fudge Factory.  Their motto? "The best fudge is found in Uranus."  In case you were wondering, we did not stop there.  I didn't know Missouri was sooo...funny.

As the hills kept on rolling, we stuck to Route 66, and it felt a little like we were back in time.  I kept thinking about the movie "Cars"and how every town was just a little dot on that long and winding freeway, trying to lure customers into their tiny shops and just barely making it through the years.

We finally left Missouri behind and the excitement was building.  Oklahoma!  We were in Oklahoma!

We celebrated by stopping at a truck stop and filling up on fried chicken, fried fish, hushpuppies and taquitos.  It was all homemade and the place was packed, but man, that was a lot of fried food!  It was 109 degrees outside, but the humidity was noticeably lower and the heat was much more bearable.

And then this scenario happened...
1:00pm, Nash: I have to go to the bathroom.
1:15pm, Nash: I have to go to the bathrooooom!
1:20pm, Nash: I'M TURTLE-HEADING BACK HERE!
And then we miraculously found a restroom and avoided a minor disaster. 

We were back on the road, where the rolling hills of Missouri had given way to the wide open plains of Oklahoma.  Really, the only thing to look at were the huge wind turbines dotting the landscape.  We have a few of these areas here in Michigan, but I had never seen anything like this! Our van was swaying back and forth in the high winds out there on Route 66, and I guess they were putting that wind energy to good use!

We crossed into Texas before 6pm and started looking for a place to hunker down for the night.  We passed cattle farms that were so vast, I couldn't see the end of them.  Thousands of head of cattle, on many different ranches.  I guess everything IS bigger in Texas!

We made a pit stop in Pampa, Texas, at a gas station and, according to my kids, that was the nicest bathroom they have ever used. Noted! We were planning to stay somewhere near Amarillo, but when we did a little research, we decided we'd head for a place called Lake Meredith, just a little bit off the beaten path.  A campfire was in our plans for the evening, so we stopped in Borger, Texas for some firewood.  $17 later, we had enough wood to get us through at least a couple of nights of fires.  As we headed out of town, I spotted an antiques store named, "Nothing New" and I gave a little chuckle.

With just an hour of daylight remaining, we arrived at Lake Meredith.  This wasn't a reservation kind of campground-you just had to find yourself a spot and it was yours.  There was just a little dirt road along the ridge of the lake, with only a couple spots large enough for us to fit our rig into.  Hey, at least there was a bathroom!  We were high above the lake, and it was soooo windy!  The views, though, were breathtaking.

Of course, I was scared to death of the steep drop off and warned the kids multiple times to the point of being highly annoying, to stay away from the edge.  My overly-cautiousness was met with eye rolls and sighs and, "Moooooooom."  I tried to relax. 

We quickly set up the camper and headed down to the docks where the boat launch was.  It might have been windy, but it was still quite hot, and after a day in the car, the kids were ready for a cooling swim.  The railing along the dock on both sides was filled with spiders.  Most of us were content to just walk down the middle, but Emerson has an intense fear of spiders and I'm pretty sure she was in her own personal hell, as there wasn't really another way to get down to the water.  There were plenty of no swimming signs posted, but apparently those rules didn't apply at sunset.  There were a couple of other families swimming and Owen, Alayna and Jason jumped right in.

Before long, Nash was in, too. 

Just before dark, we decided to head back to camp, where we were informed by the campers next to us, that there was a burn ban in effect.  No campfire for us!  And with no electrical hookups, and no other means of cooking anything, we opted for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the dark. What a way to spend our first night of camping! Luckily, I had picked up headlamps for everyone and they came in pretty handy as we made our way to and from the bathroom.

 It was pitch black and so windy, but we set up our camp chairs and watched an amazing lightning display out across the lake.  In between light-ups, we looked for constellations.  And in case you were wondering, the stars at night ARE big and bright in Texas.

The kids had slowly migrated into the camper, and eventually I followed them.  I got into bed, but shortly after lying down, I had a minor panic attack.  It was sooo windy, and even with all of the screens open, I was sure we were going to catch a gust that would send us and our little camper tumbling right over the cliff and into the lake far below.  My stomach was turning.  All I could think about was how our flimsy little pop-up camper was being held to the ground by two TINY tires and a few stick-thin jacks.  I couldn't do it.  My minor panic attack was quickly becoming a major panic attack.  Reluctantly, I took Alayna who was also not having it, and we headed to the van.  It was a hot night out, but with the windows cracked, it was bearable.  The winds were fierce well into the night, and in between gusts I could hear coyotes all around us.  The stars and lightning remained, though, so I stayed up watching them until my eyelids grew heavy.

An hour later, I woke up in a sweat.  The wind had completely stopped, and it was sweltering in the van.  I had all but given up sleep by that point.  An hour after that, the winds returned with a vengeance and this time they came with the smell of burning. 

Something was on fire.

The lightning from across the lake was now directly overhead, the clouds were thick like fog, and I felt like I could reach out and touch them.  The wind was blowing so violently, I was sure not only our camper, but every camper along the ridge had blown off the cliff, and I was betting that the van I was in would be next. This is how it would end for me.  Alayna was scared, too, and she had moved from a long seat in the back to the driver's seat next to me.  As I sat there, staring out at the storm, I watched as the campers around us completely abandoned their tents and headed to their cars with as much as they could carry.

Somehow, I must've dozed off again.  I woke another hour later, and this time I was freezing cold.  What was going on?!  I had to close all of the windows in the van and grab an extra blanket.  I could tell Alayna was cold, too.  She was curled up in a ball, still in the driver's seat, but seemed to be sleeping.  I pulled out one of those sleep masks, blocked everything out, and fell asleep.

To be continued...