In the Car

    Dad informed us that we were two-thirds away from home. We had a lot of ground to cover and so we started driving. In the morning, we replaced the camper tires for the second time on this trip and Mom and Herbie went for a run.
    We left Colorado at some time in the day, after a bit of my history lessons that I'm sure no one is fond of, and if it weren't for Mom and Dad, would have to be done silently. Kansas welcomed us and I passed Claire my IPod to take a picture of the welcome sign for me.
    She tapped that button long before the sign appeared and as it came close to being in view, she began vigorously hammering on it. Well, when the sign passed right in the cameras line of sight she began tapping just above the camera button and missed the shot. She moved her thumb back down after it passed and took me a few more scenic pictures of Kansas.
    Don't worry though. We went to the visitors center, which was very nice and they had a welcome sign outside. I took a picture of. Here it is.

    Inside, of course they had the had the advertisement, "Get the Heck Out of Dodge", that fun quote that some of us may know, but they crossed "out of" and replaced it with "into".
It read, "Get the heck out of into Dodge city". They also had a Wizard of Oz display on the wall. It was like a little photo shoot and I took a picture with them as did Claire and Mom.
    My favorite character from the wizard of Oz has always been Scarecrow. However, I'm not quite sure why.
    Here is a picture.

    Claire drove for a little bit after that and later I was reminded of a time Claire was driving earlier on this trip. It went a little like this:

   Dad had Claire pull the car over away from the gas station (keep in mind the trailer is attached throughout this whole story) and she stayed in the front seat with the hopes of driving. Dad walked up pulled open the door and asked. "Are you driving?"
    Claire said, "Yes." confidently.  Dad made his way around the car towards the backseat.
    Mom leapt out of the car and exclaimed, "No way! I'm not sitting in the front."
    Dad ended up in the front seat with Claire.
    Claire began driving onto the highway and drove for a considerable amount of time with no problem and then we got behind a mac truck.
    Claire asked if she should pass and Dad said, "No." Then the truck turned on it's hazards and slowed down. Claire asked again if she should pass, this time Dad complied.
    She sped up slightly and then swung out into the other lane very suddenly. I didn't scream: not then anyway. Then she veered back into the other lane and nearly slammed into the mac truck and definitely cut him off. I still reframed from screaming.
    Then she swerved straight towards a cliff with no guardrail. Mom and I leaned into the middle seat and held onto each other for dear life. Mom screamed and she doesn't usually scream and we were both laughing out of pure fear and this time I did scream.
    Dad reached over and took the wheel. That was also rather scary.
    We got ourselves back on the straight highway and Dad looked over at Claire and said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but pull off on the next exit."
    We pulled off the exit and Dad told Claire to stop, right in the middle of the road and he climbed out of the passenger side and got back into the drivers seat.
    Later on, Dad said, "See, I didn't think we would survive to this rest area that's why I made her pull off."
    Then we came up behind the same truck on the highway. The truck accelerated clearly trying to stay ahead of us. Dad sat in the front seat making jokes about what he may be saying. Then as soon as we passed him he let off the gas and fell way behind us.
    Mom laughed and said, "He is slowing down."
    Dad said, "Yeah because he's not stupid. He wants to keep his job...and his life."
    However, it was a learning experience and for her first time passing ever I would say she did pretty well considering she was passing a mac truck and pulling a trailer and nobody died or was injured.
    The whole time Herbie lay on his back sprawled across two seats, sound asleep.

    Yesterday was the first time Claire has driven with the trailer since that particular incident and she did a wonderful job, considering. She didn't fall asleep though, however much I may have bored her with my history.
    I did a little silent reading and other pass times along those lines for a while. We stopped at Steak 'N Shake and I got...you guessed it...a BLT no mayo. I conducted one last history lesson as the sky darkened and our day slowly rolled to a close.
    We drove through Kansas City, Kansas.

    In case anyone out there is wondering, what happened to all the corn? Don't worry. It's here in Kansas too.

    At some point just after that, we passed into Missouri. We are slowly making our way East. Our official traveling song for these last few days has been East Bound and Down by Jerry Reed and Dick Feller. We arrived at a campsite and gee, did it feel great to take a shower.
    Claire and I talked for awhile and then went to sleep.

Until Next Time,
    Katherine Rose