Oklahoma Part 1: The Road

Much has been said about leaving home to pursue the great adventure called life. On one hand there is the quiet comfort of what has always been, the daily cascade of familiarity like a soft security blanket assuring you that tomorrow will come with very little change. On the other hand is everything outside of that bubble, a place you can reasonably predict but truly have no control. This is a land of opportunity and change and wondrous bewilderment. Both paths have their pros and cons and I hope everyone looks at the choice of what they want for themselves. But once someone decides to leave there is that one question: 

When I moved from Oklahoma to Wisconsin in December I knew I would be back for a visit sometime over this summer. I wondered how I would feel about the only place I had ever really known.

A few months ago we took a weekend trip with the kids. It was about a 4 hour trip and we used it as a test run to see how they would do in the car for long periods of time. A 5 and 3 year old have a very limited attention span after all. That seemed to go well enough so our family vacation was green-lighted. We planned it out in advance, going over our list of things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see. Trying to squeeze in introductions for family and friends as Erin hadn't had the chance to really meet people on her couple of visits last fall. With an at least 16 hour drive ahead of us we decided to start after she got off of work on Thursday. We pulled out of Oconto around 4:30 and we were off. 

Springfield, IL was our overnight destination. The room we booked at the Sleep Inn only had one queen bed and could have been a little more taken care of but the price was right and the kids didn't mind a pallet on the floor. The morning came early and after a quick breakfast we were off for St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. 

I had been to the arch a few years ago but Erin and the kids had not. Our plan was to stop and take the tour, going up to the top and looking out of the tiny observation windows as the whole thing sways back and forth in the wind. St. Louis was cool, somewhere in the low 70's, but very humid. The air was thick. After walking several blocks to the ticket location the kids were already restless. We noticed a sign while we were in line that indicated when the next tour time was. 2 1/2 hours was not going to work for us. Chelsea and Clayton were already fidgeting beyond control and we were just in line. No way we wanted to try to occupy them for that long so we decided to walk around a little instead. We did at least make it over to the arch.

Chelsea needs a little work holding the camera straight but she takes a pretty good picture.

Walking back we noticed an area where construction had tore up some of the old brick road that has run through downtown St. Louis for ages. We took the opportunity to snag part of a brick for our souvenir rock garden back home. I can only imagine what people thought as we walked by and two little kids were fighting over who got to carry a brick.

It was still too early for lunch so we headed west on I-44 for awhile. Now, remember how I said the kids were already restless? That didn't change... for the rest of the day... I still consider myself very new to the parenting thing and my exposure to kids in general is very limited. I grew up with sisters that were older enough than me that we didn't hang out or play or fight with each other. So really I wasn't super prepared for the amount of hand to hand combat that was taking place in the back seat of my suv. And even when we did manage to break up the fracas the air was filled with eardrum-piercing-volume nonsense noises. Chelsea either hates Clayton's voice so much she needs to drown it out or loves the sound of her own voice so much she thinks its the only thing anyone else should ever hear. And Clayton? Well we played the quiet game a couple of times. His personal best was 19 seconds. I mean I get it, he's 3 but OH MY GOD I at least wish he had volume control. The afternoon stretched on and we decided maybe some lunch would coax a nap out of them. We try to stick to our 'no chain restaurant' rule while we're on adventures but we settled for one that neither of us had eaten before. Gotta say Steak and Shake was cheap and decent and they give the kids enough to do while you wait for your food.

Our hopes for naps never materialized as the day and Missouri stretched on. We made a few more stops for restrooms, gas, and snacks. Something I had always remembered seeing while driving through this region were the billboards for Walnut Bowls. For miles and miles you would see them. I had told Erin about it but was disappointed when we only saw a couple. That was enough though. We had to check it out. Shepard Hills Factory Outlets was the force behind the enigmatic advertisements dotting the roadside for what seemed like way too long. This was truly a waste of time in every sense. Wall to wall tacky knick nacks with only one aisle of "walnut bowls" which as it turns out are not bowls made from one piece of solid walnut as you might expect. No, these were bowls comprised of pieces of walnut glued together and turned on a lathe into bowls. They looked nice enough but really all they did was encompass what the entire store was about: stick enough crap close enough together and pass it off as classy.    

We did manage to get one of the kids to take a nap. Poor Biscuit.

We finally passed into Oklahoma and that meant only a few more hours. The hills gave way to the flat plains west of Tulsa and it started to feel more and more familiar. The wide open space, horizon to horizon every way you look. Wheat elevators marking tiny towns in the distance and oil pumps churning cold hard cash from the depths. You have enough time to take it all in when there is nothing else to look at. 

About 8:30 we pulled into my parents house in Enid. The first part of the trip was over and after some initial shy moments the kids were crawling all over Nanny and Papa's house. We were exhausted and needed rest but the week ahead would prove we had no time for that...