The Other Seven States (aka... part 2)

Oh, gosh! It's been a week now since this part of the trip began! And I never even had time to write down notes on what we did, like I did during the North Carolina portion... so, bear with me! :)

Well, here we are in the St. Louis Airport, and car-less, but maybe I should talk a little about how we got here...

Last Friday morning (Aug. 7th) we were still in NC, but we took off pretty much right away. It was splendid taking off on a car trip instead of a plane trip... no rules about bags, no security... no Nazis... very exciting! The lady at Hertz really was helpful... we found with our AAA membership we'd get the 2nd driver for free, plus an overall 10% discount - oh, and an extra day with the car than we thought! So we'd have it until early this morning, instead of early yesterday morning! Big difference. So we said our goodbyes to the grandparents... I wanted so much to stay as well as to go... and that's really what the rest of the trip has been - conflicted feelings while all the while enjoying everything. We got into our black Ford Focus and drove off to the South!

There's a great deal of beautiful landscape between NC and GA, especially in SC. Great sweeping scenes of forest and mountains. It took me a while to get used to not being in control of the car... especially in Atlanta traffic, but after this first drive I settled down and didn't have any more outbursts... poor Meg. We arrived at Linda's around noon, I think. It was a darned good thing she gave me her phone #, because of all the things I forgot to bring, I didn't bring her address. LOL! We had a tour of the house, and I have to say I was very impressed with the diversity and size of the library, the "man cave", and the Lassie collection. It took me a while to take in how many dvd's were there. :) On the way to get glasses and lunch, I really loved listening to '40's music in a PT... :) Back at the house, I really loved "The Big Time". I was totally engrossed with the story and finished it wanting to know a whole lot more about those characters. What a shame they didn't continue it! A recurring character from the Spiderman movies was a main character in this... I think I like him a lot! Great stuff really. Oh, and we were treated to a lovely dinner of ribs and corn-on-the-cob, followed by perfect brownies! I'm afraid I proved myself to be rather silly though: we had left the suitcase in the car and I had stupidly packed my pajamas there... duh! I think I was too much beside myself with happiness to worry about the duh-obvious things like bringing the address and packing the PJ's in the right place.

As for Saturday the 8th, Linda has done a very detailed post as well, I won't reiterate what she already said, but simply continue... it was already getting warm at the Farmer's Market when we arrived. There were lots of free tastes of things: I've never had chicken pot pie for breakfast before... lol. Especially when combined with watermelon, salsa and chips, and a few other really tasty things. The Georgia Aquarium was very much like the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Both very modern with all the exhibits branching off a huge, main lobby. I had forgotten that they had whale sharks here... holy cow, were they neat! I think I liked this one more than the new one in Long Beach.

Gosh, Saturday night (into Sunday... hehe) was spectacular! I've never really watched WENN with other fans (besides Meg) and it was so fun! Gee, five episodes! during chat! and then extras that I've never seen! and Rupert stuff! Holy cow! WENN overload! And loving it. Took me a moment to calm down enough to sleep, LOL!

Sunday morning (Aug. 9th)...
I felt rather sad for leaving so soon (and sorry for having to leave so early!), but also rather excited... it only took us 12 and 1/2 hours to get to Norman... a mere hop, skip and a jump. No, really... it wasn't bad at all. Mississippi turned out not to be terribly bad after all... unless you don't like Taco Bell (I'm not their biggest fan, myself though). And Alabama had an interesting turnoff... that was a darned good thing we didn't miss. Arkansas had too many semis that were passing each other... and Oklahoma had bits of interstate down to one lane... but we made it just fine and saw lots of cows.

Now after talking to someone for over a year (and becoming best of friends) and never meeting... meeting Mike face to face was very nice, indeed. And good old Charlie lived up to his friendly reputation... and then some! :) We simply visited for a little while and then took Charlie on his walk, which hilariously turned out to be more of a run, with lots of breaks. LOL

Mon. Aug. 10:
The next morning Mike picked us up at the hotel (what service!), and we had a lovely breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, and then made off to the Zoo! Although it was rather hot (in the 90's) we saw almost everything and I especially enjoyed the Native Oklahoma trail that included American bison, and a pair of flightless bald eagles (one had been shot (grrrrrrr) and the other hit by one of those semis... probably while they were changing lanes) and the mini aquarium with the seals. After cooling off in the lobby after retrieving my bag... (sigh) we took off for "linner" at The Spaghetti Warehouse in Bricktown. After some great food and accompanying conversation, we went back to let the dog out for a minute and watched a favorite episode... "The First Mrs. Bloom". Now before we had come, poor Audrey had passed away. So after a brief phone call, we located a lady piggy in Midwest City and went to pick her up. "Penny" came home with us while we got shakes and MEAT for dinner. Back at the house, a lighting storm was coming so we took Charlie for his "walk" sooner than later. My goodness, it lit up the whole sky! The evening slipped away with copying discs and dog lickings and conversations.

Tue. Aug. 11:
We totally missed the hotel breakfast from sleeping in too late, so we all took off to Panera Bread. The rain and thunder finally caught up to Norman while we were eating, and the place lost power. It really didn't matter though, because our plans took us back to OKC, and back to Bricktown even. We took the "water taxi" on the canal that was built there in 1998. A pleasant affair with all the mallards and statues. And on the way back to the car, I confessed to having left my fishy hat in the restaurant the previous day, so I was able to get that back without too much embarrassment :) For fun, we stopped by the Softball Hall of Fame next, and then had a quick lunch at a nearby mall, before continuing on to the Botanical Gardens. This place was full of tropical plants and tiny lizards and had its very own waterfall! There was a duck pond below the gardens, edged by concrete. We saw lots of ducks and turtles and fishes, but the cutest and saddest thing was that poor, little duckling that couldn't quite jump out of the pond after its mother. Mom would jump back in, and then jump back out, but poor Jr. couldn't quite make it, but tried again and again... and again. Back at the house (with all my belongings), we watched "Sight Unseen", then went to a fabulous local Italian place for dinner, then returned to get the dog. We took a tour of the Law Building (which is very impressive), saw the office and the library down the hall and then finally let the dog go on a real walk. Although getting kinda late, we watched "The Court Jester" back at the house. Really, everything went by all too quickly. Gosh, it was sad to leave.

Wed. Aug. 12:
In the morning, Meg and I took off around 8. Although in time for breakfast, I really didn't feel like eating. I took a biscuit along and ended up eating it by the time we got to Tulsa. The Oklahoma Aquarium was easy to find, and it, like the zoo in OKC, had a native Oklahoman exhibit of freshwater fishes, along with the aquarium regulars. We really liked the large-mouth bass that was two feet long... he was big! And they had a beaver in the river exhibit... and he came out of his "dam" while we went by! Couldn't spend too much time, however, so we took off after an hour and a half visit. I was finally hungry after a while, and it happened to be around Vinita, OK. We didn't eat our burgers there, but we sure did like the view! Had to eat and drive as we were cutting it really close in trying to see anything at Fort Leonard Wood, in the middle of Missouri. We ended up making it in time to see the Engineer's museum in a quarter of an hour before closing. Whew! After that, we had no schedule, so we leisurely drove around the fort, saw various construction vehicles, and left. My brother couldn't meet us, but we did talk to him on the phone. He's in the middle of his training there. Stopped at Shoney's on the way, but other than that it was clear sailing into the St. Louis area. We were able to meet Meg's friend for a bit of dinner at a Mexican place near the hotel, but that's all we saw of her.

Yesterday (Aug. 13th), Meg and I had lots of plans, but were only able to fit in Daniel Boone's Home (a bit west of St. Louis) and the Gateway Arch in downtown. This was because it took so very long to get up into the Arch. The north tram had a cable that had a couple of tiny frayed cords in it, so they closed it down. That meant that the south car had to accommodate everyone! While waiting, we were able to relax, read, visit the very strange museum they have there (below the arch) and the two gift stores. It was all as cool as I remembered it being in 1998, when my grandparents and I stopped by on our way from Minnesota to Springfield, MO. We got a little lost on our way back to the hotel, due to construction, but we made it alive. :) My goodness, and Daniel Boone's home (that morning) was very cool! They showed a short film about him, and then a tour guide took us over the house. The beams and floors were original, and a person could see the axe marks on all the beams. VERY impressive (and neat as well). That night we relaxed in the hotel and played Phase 10. I enjoyed my leftovers from Tuesday night as Meg had something from Steak n' Shake (she had finished hers the previous morning). I started the last post before taking a shower and falling asleep. Oh, dear... it's pretty much over.

This morning (wow, we're finally on today!), we had to turn in the rental car. And Meg's friend wasn't kidding when she said St. Louis had a terrible metro system. We'd be cutting it close to getting back to the airport on time even to go only a couple miles. So, we decided to stay in the airport... we played cards, watched TV shows, and gosh! I finished all this posting! We are missing out on seeing the Clydesdales at the Budweiser Brewery and the Spirit of St. Louis at the museum in the park, but that's not too bad, I guess. Better to actually relax and be sure of getting on the plane. And thank goodness for the outlets we found! heh!

You are now up to date, as of 4:15 pm, Central Time. Our plane takes off in two hours.
Jp