Advertisement
DSCF1216
Hubble telescope replica
Mileage: 428 miles
The first strange thing of the day came relatively early in the morning. We started getting “severe thunderstorm” alerts on our phones and the TV in our room and when alerts went off during breakfast, it caused us some concern. After looking at the radar, we decided to wait out the major storms cells going through the area before heading out. Okay, a late start to the day, but during the wait our second strange thing occurred. Pam was going to write on the blog, but when she cut on her computer, she couldn’t access anything but her email and her stored documents – all her programs including Microsoft Office: Word, etc. seemed to be gone. Where’d they go??? Claire decided we’d have to do a restore to another point, but since we didn’t have time to do it uninterrupted, we’d have to wait until later that night. Pam hoped that it could be recovered.
Once we were back on the Missouri roads heading NE toward Marshfield, we were quickly met with more unusual things. Letter roads, like
DSCF1227
Missouri State Capital building “YY – Division Street”, brought back memories of the 1922coast2coast trip we took two years ago through Missouri. Then, a big billboard said that we can go visit “Uranus” on Route 66. Susan matter-of-factly said, “I didn’t know that Route 66 went all the way to Uranus!” As we were all giggling about that, the next billboard came up and Pam says, “Oh, look! There’s a fudge shop at Uranus! Ha! Ha! That’s appropriate!!!” At that point, we were all about in tears. We knew this was going to be a weird, silly day.
First stop was the Hubble Space Telescope Replica in Marshfield, Missouri. When we pulled up and saw it, we weren’t sure if what we were seeing was actually it or not, and even if it was, it had to be a scaled down model. But, no!!! It said it was a full-scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope currently in space. I mean, this thing was so small, that it was about the length of our van, but not near as wide. Who knew it was such a tiny thing??? We didn't believe and looked it up. They lied!!!! It's bigger than that!!! A lot
DSCF1232
Louis and Clarke starting point statue bigger. Oh, well. While still in the area, we made our first pitstop and the strangeness continued. The bathroom door hinges looked as if they had been ripped from the wall, but somehow, the door was still attached?? And when Claire was in there, she said the trash can lid moved on its own, then as she unlocked the door, immediately someone walked in on her. What was going on today??
Looking for things to do while on the way to Iowa, Pam was checking out Roadside America in Missouri and suddenly said, “Did you know that the World’s Largest Roll of Toilet Paper was in Branson and we missed it??? I think the World’s Largest Roll of Toilet Paper should be in Uranus with the fudge shop, don’t you!!!” Then we all cackled again.
So after going interplanetary, we decided to visit the other side of the world as we traveled to Lebanon on the way through the Ozarks (Osage Beach and Lake Ozark). Apparently, this is where you go to the beach when you’re in the middle of the country and it wasn’t all commercialized like Branson was. Soon, we saw a sign that said that
DSCF1237
Governors mansion Mexico was just 66 miles from there???? In a matter of around 100 miles, we’ve gone interplanetary, to the Middle East, and then through Mexico, so it was only fitting that we would see a Cassidy Road sign (for our van and the extensive traveling she’s had to do this morning) right before getting into the capital city of Missouri, Jefferson City.
In Jefferson City, we saw the Capitol Building (under construction, like in Oklahoma City). Pam was having more technology issues – her camera on her phone wouldn’t take any pictures and earlier, her Dorothy 2, was talking to her in the bathroom, and then suddenly switched from sending us from Oklahoma City to Canada?? It was trying to take us to another country again. Just around the corner from the Capitol, we stopped to see Lewis & Clark’s Jefferson Landing Monument where they started their journey discovering new lands out west. Not long thereafter, Claire turned over the driving to Pam and we drove a few blocks over to the ornate Governor’s Mansion. Along the way we saw a statue of what Susan coined a “bearilla” – not sure what it really was, but it looked like
DSCF1239
Our beautiful lunch spot. a bear, lion, and gorilla all rolled into one. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch a picture for you to see this strange sight. Leaving out of Jefferson City, the hillside was covered with more of those funny-looking white, water towers. Picture a missile or rocket with the top pointy part cut straight off; that’s what all the water towers looked like.
Sometime after passing an exit for roads “M” and “Y” that made it look like “MY” road, we stopped for lunch outside of Columbia. Did we have another lunch with a gorgeous view of the surrounding scenery? Well . . . if you consider looking at a convenience store, gas pumps, billboards, and an old pickup truck that was pulling a tractor and some sod a gorgeous view, then we had the best view around! Traveling this desolate area after lunch, we had to make our own entertainment and we chose writing silly songs. Not only did we have time to write today’s song, but we also worked a little on songs for the next few days. With land spreading out for miles and miles, we wrote the following:
(For your singing pleasure, put these words to the
DSCF1241
cup and a minnon on the side of the road tune of “It’s beginning to Look a lot like Christmas”)
It’s beginning to look a lot like flatland Missouri’s really a lot of flatland
Everywhere we go Nary a hill in sight
Corn, wheat, and soybeans It’s as green as green can be
Only us in between Only signs and roads to see
With miles and miles and miles of road to go! Iowa, are you the same tonight? It’s beginning to look a lot like flatland, flatland . . . After all the silly songs, we resorted to making jokes from the silly road signs. PP road – who wants to live there? Then we passed DD road, the beginning of the big-chested women roads! Nothing around so we were just being silly; we were lost in “vast” space. Soon, we passed through Atlanta??? Then, out in the middle of nowhere, there was a large, round Doppler radar that Pam called a “big egg”. Then a sign that looked like this ß W Eàwe must have split, then a U à so “you” go that way, and a P ß so “pee” the other way! Then a billboard for an
DSCF1244
Amish country Urgent Care said, “My son has a fish hook in his ear!” All this while, Susan inspected the fields in the farms for how neat their rows were, how nice their crops looked, if they planted on time, etc. We said she was doing field inspections. Then a road sign said to “share the road with the horse and buggies." And suddenly, we were thrown back in time as we entered into Amish area. Horse and buggies were on the roads and parked at people’s homes. Beautiful barns and green pastureland were all around. As we passed one large home with several horses and buggies parked outside, Pam pointed to show the others, not realizing that the homeowner’s were sitting on the porch and thought she was waving at them, so they waved back.
Finally, the sign we longed to see – IOWA!!! We needed a break and stopped to get some gas. After washing the windows on the van, Pam opened the door to the van and, oh, NOOOO!!!! The alarm started going off and she couldn’t get it to stop. Claire grabbed the key and jumped in the van trying to get it to stop. Then, she
DSCF1248
county courthouse we all liked cranked it – all while Pam was pointing to the gas hose connected to the van!!! Didn’t she know that you don’t start vehicles while pumping gas. The alarm is still going off. It looked like Claire was going to put it in gear, so Pam yelled over the alarm. Susan grabbed the keys and somehow got the alarm to stop even though Pam and Claire couldn’t. Even then, the flashers were still going. Did Cassidy, the van, just want some attention? If the little town of Casey, Iowa didn’t know us before then, boy, they sure did now! Everyone in that store was looking at us and wondering who we were. Welcome to Iowa!!!
Since Susan said Ottumwa was the home of Radar O’Reilly we drove through there, but we didn’t see anything about it in the town. By this point, the wind was blowing so hard that Pam was struggling to hold us on the road. Iowa, must mean “wind blown” in Dutch. With modern windmills off in the distance, we weren’t surprised when we stopped in Pella, a beautiful Dutch town, which had three Dutch windmills, a canal, a big Klokkenspel, brick roads, and Dutch bakeries,
DSCF1253
farm land that it was nice, but sooo windy. We ate supper at the Old Amsterdam Hotel, before continuing on through windy, roller coaster roads into Des Moines where we were met at our uptown Hyatt Place hotel by valet parking. Somehow Pam is always in the driver's seat when we drive up like Beverly Hillbillies to valet parking! Oh, the embarrassment! It was a scramble to get our many belongings condensed into as few of things as possible, but we still looked like a country bumpkins coming in the lobby with all our belongings, looking tired from all our traveling, and our wind-blown hair from Iowa! Once in the room, we were able to restore Pam's computer to before the trip, but for some strange reason it won't save her Word documents??? Apparently, they're lost somewhere blowing in the wind of Iowa.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
