These places and these faces are getting old, I'm going home.

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So sang Chris Daughtry and I think it's our theme right now. As great as our time away from home has been, there's something about the thought of home that makes us quite anxious to just be there. However, it's not quite that easy when you have ventured 1300 miles away. Did you know that there are approximately 1,842 places to wee as you cross Wyoming diagonally? And we got to know about 47 of them quite well. Ugh!
Thursday morning we were to begin the trek homeward starting from the cabin in Jackson, Wy. I got up very early, naturally, and enjoyed a pot of coffee and the peace and quiet of solitude before everyone else woke up. When they started getting up and around and packing to head out I started to notice that I was visiting the bathroom rather frequently and things just weren't coming out quite right (is that too much information?). Anyway, by the time we were finally ready to hit the road at 9:30 (yikes - so late!) I had a full-fledged case of the “Big Dirty D”! What a thing to happen on a travel day! I would like to blame it on the ribs at Bubba's the night before but it may have just been two weeks of eating out and being so far off any kind of regular routine. I don't know what caused it but it was not a good time. We had 432 miles to drive to Cheyenne. What should have taken around 7 hours took 8.5 because of all the bathroom breaks. And, let me warn you in case you're ever in Wyoming in the same situation, there are llloooonnnggg stretches of highway without a hint of civilization. By the time we finally got close to Cheyenne I was feverish and feeling quite awful. The boys were ready to jump out of their skin. I don't know how many times they asked, “how much longer?” and, “is there a pool?”. I kept telling them I didn't know if there was a pool which was more than a fib, actually. I was very careful in making reservations to choose a place with breakfast and a pool. But, things happen, and I didn't want them to get their hopes up. (We've arrived at hotels before to find the pool closed for health reasons or for renovations, etc.) As for me, all I wanted was a bed with a stool close by. Maybe some 7-up. And a soft pillow. And air conditioning. Definitely air conditioning because I was so hot.
We finally arrived at the hotel and the boys went in with me to check in. Jake immediately saw the sign announcing the location of the pool and got so excited I thought he would explode. What a letdown when they got changed into their swim trunks and ran downstairs only to come back up a few minutes later, dragging their behinds, to tell us that it was closed due to low chlorine levels. (See, I told you it happens, sometimes.) Instead they horsed around on the lobby computer, went to eat next door at Village Inn, and drove halfway across town looking for some soup for me.
Yep, I was sick as a dog. Ohmygosh, I felt awful. I was completely drained. As in empty. Both the contents of my digestive tract and my energy were gone! I still had a fever and ached in every bone and muscle of my body. Steve and the boys really did drive around looking for someplace that had some soup so I could at least get something into me. They finally came back with what I think was some kind of spicy Italian beef/vegetable/noodle concoction. Not really the kind of thing you want to put in an upset stomach but they went to so much trouble, and it was so sweet, and I appreciated it so much, that I tried to get some of it down. Finally, I just slept. The boys, I guess, were as bored as they had ever been on the trip and everyone was in bed by 9:30, just wanting the day to be over.
Friday I woke up feeling better. Fever was gone and even felt like eating a little. Then time to hit the road. We were heading into eastern Colorado, skirting around Denver, and heading into Kansas. I was excited to drive through Colorado because I can't remember being in the state before except to change planes, maybe. (I probably was during one of the numerous cross-country moves we made when I was a child, but sure don't remember it.) Anyway, I couldn't have been more wrong in my expectations of what we would see! Around the Denver metro area we could almost see what was probably a beautiful mountain range but it was so hazy the view wasn't clear at all! I so hope the haze was weather related, not smog! How sad to live so close to mountains and not be able to enjoy them for the pollution. We skirted around Denver on a bypass and headed east toward Kansas. Wow, talk about boring! Eastern Colorado really has nothing to brag about. There were some cool rock formations and some interesting buttes, but after being spoiled by the Tetons, it was really quite a letdown. While the boys had slept quite a bit the day before, driving through Colorado into Kansas they watched LOTR 1&2, or maybe it was 2&3. I don't know. I just know they were really ready to get to our stopping place which was going to be Dodge City...home of Gunsmoke, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson. And feed lots. Ohmygosh, so many feed lots! The closer we got to Dodge City, the smellier it got! We passed one feed lot that advertised a capacity of 11,000 cattle. Can you imagine how much food it would take to sustain 11,000 head of cattle? And then how much poo there would be? Jeez Louise! The stench outside the van was so much worse than anything any of the boys could come up with inside the van! Dodge City, Ks will forevermore be know, by me anyway, as Stinkytown, USA.
Even when we got to the hotel it didn't let up. While making reservations I really had a tough time finding a room. I don't know if there was some big happening in Dodge City but all I could book online was a smoking room. The few times I have done this before I've never had any trouble getting it exchanged for a non-smoking room once we got to the hotel. Not so this time, unfortunately. They could have move us to a king room but no doubles were available. I didn't want the boys to have to sleep on the floor so I decided I could suck it up and deal with it for one night. Oh how I regret that decision. It was really pretty smelly when we got to the room. I was having second thoughts when we opened the door but Steve and the boys thought it would be okay. I didn't want to be the reason the boys slept on the floor so we just opened the windows (making the choice to deal with cow poo rather than cigarette smoke) and turned the air conditioning on high. The boys went to swim (halleluia, the pool was functional!) while Steve and I went to the Dodge City Museum.
The museum complex was really pretty cool. It started with an educational film and then you could stroll through “Boot Hill” (does every Western town have one?) and then on to a re-creation of historic Front Street. You know how in the western movies the men go to the barber for a shave and the barber has a shaving mug with a brush to slather on the shaving cream? Well, I learned that the locals had their own shaving mugs with their family crest (or some such thing) on it and it was stored in a glass front cabinet at the barber's and the barber would use each local man's own mug to give him a shave. Pretty cool, huh? They never showed that part on any movie I ever saw. Much more hygienic I think! I also learned that Front Street in Dodge City was where the “red light” was first used...and not as a traffic signal. The “soiled doves”, as they were called, even had calling cards printed that they would hand out on the streets. And Marshal Dillon was never actually marshal of Dodge City. How disappointing. I'll never be able to watch Gunsmoke the same way.
We left the museum and had steaks at Montana Mike's (in Kansas?). I have to say that we grill better steaks at home...and the service is much better. But maybe we were just homesick for home cooking. After picking up a pizza for the boys on the way home (the boys wanted to stay and swim but would only do so after we promised we wouldn't forget to feed them. Seriously, when have we ever done that??) we headed back to the hotel. Walking in the room was a smack in the face! Why, oh why, did I not listen to that little voice telling me I was making a huge mistake? While we were in the room and active the smoke smell didn't seem to be quite as bad, but as soon as we were still and trying to sleep...ugh! Tossing and turning, and tossing and turning and then...I started feeling queasy again. Oh, jeez. I felt so sorry for whomever was staying in room next door 'cause now I had stuff coming out at both ends! (Again, too much information? Sorry!) I must have flushed the stool 26 times during the night. I thought about just taking a pillow and blanket and sleeping in the bathtub but I don't think I could have gotten out if one of the boys had to wee in the middle of the night. I even tried to schmear a fabric softener sheet all over the sheet and blanket and tucked more into the air conditioning vents to try and mask the smell. Nothing was working and by the time morning finally came I was exhausted. I finally fell asleep sometime after 5:00. It was after 7:00 when I woke up and got everyone else up by 8:00. I was still dozing in bed feeling quite crappy (pun intended.) I was almost as happy to leave the hotel in Dodge City as I was to leave the hell-hole in Sturgis. Almost. (It was a Comfort Inn and apart for the smoking room, was really quite nice.)
Finally we were on the last leg home. Tonight. Tonight I will sleep in my own bed. Oh, what joy! However, we still had 7 hours or so of driving to do. Across Kansas. Ugh, again. Now, if you know your geography you have probably been asking yourself why the heck we were driving the route we were. Well, CJ had mentioned a desire to go through Greensburg, Ks, the town hit by the 2-mile wide tornado. And, as a means to reinforce how seriously we should take tornado watches and warnings, I thought it would be a good idea. Also, Steve's great aunt Maxine lives southeast of Wichita and we would be too close to not stop in. So there we were traveling the back roads of Kansas. And traveling. And traveling. And traveling. Does Kansas ever end? Actually, much ended. In Greensburg, anyway.
Ohmygosh, I have never seen such destruction. I just can't imagine anyone surviving. And what we were seeing was after, what, 6 weeks of clean-up? I thought about taking some pictures but decided it would be an invasion of the survivors' privacy. Besides, you've all seen the footage. But, it's much different to actually be there and see it first hand. Even I will take the warnings more seriously now. It made us long for our own homes even more. We even considered bypassing Maxine and Sherman's to get home sooner. But that would have been very selfish of us.
We got to Maxine's sometime around 2-ish maybe? Oh, how happy they were to see us! We've only been to their home once before and it was before CJ was born. Cliff would have been about 4-5 maybe? Their home is a wonderful old 2-story with some really great details that you can only find in houses such as this. It really reminded me of Ron and Scarlett's home (Steve's brother and sis-in-law) only with much less room to move around. It was crammed full of every kind of knick-knack imaginable. The kind of stuff you see in antique shops that folks are paying a ton of money for. Maxine and Sherman have been collecting this stuff for all of their 45 years of marriage. I could have wandered around in their home all day looking at all her collectibles. CJ and Jake especially liked the stuffed bobcat. It was reared up on its back paws with a front paw stretched out as it it were swatting at something. CJ decided that all it needed was a stuffed bird hanging above it.
We didn't stay long as Sherman is not doing well and we didn't want to wear them out. And we still had miles to travel. (We checked the mileage when we got home and were thoroughly ashamed of ourselves. We've been in Springfield 14+ years, it's less than 300 miles to their house, and we've only just now gone.) We hit the road once again, this time more anxious than ever to be home. We were so close, and yet, still so far away. A couple of wrong turns, a stop at Sonic for ice cream, and 200 and some miles later and....HOME! Jake first, digging through the dirty clothes bags to find his stuff, scouring the van for all his belongings (we still got to our house with his swimming trunks, a DVD, and his leftover vacation money - we'll get it all to you, soon, Jake!), and chatting briefly with Hubert, and then finally...finally, our end of town, our street, our driveway.....ahhh! Our house. Our dog. Our shower. Our bed.
What a journey it was! How much I loved each and every day. I don't know of anything big thing I would change (except for the whole busted butt ordeal. But even that taught me something I wouldn't really give up.) We passed through 7 states. Slept in 11 different beds. Did 13 loads of laundry. Hiked roughly 15 miles of trails. Aired out the van while driving 75 mph (biological processes, you know.) 47 times. Drank 96 sixteen-ounce bottles of water. Burned 175 gallons of gasoline. Took 1,092 pictures (with my camera...not counting those Jake and CJ took). Logged 3, 817 miles from start to finish. And made more memories than we could possible number. I'm so thankful for the opportunity we had to make this trip. We may never have ths ame opportunity again but we will always have this time. I'm glad you came along. I hope you liked traveling with us, had a few laughs and enjoyed a few pictures. I enjoyed having you. I hope we can do it again. So, until next time...

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Comments

[christina]

Hello Kansas goes forever and ever and ever!!! Not fun to have bodily system errors when traveling... Also sleeping a room smoke stenched room is really difficult.. I have tried even using a bottle of Freebreeze, very briefly I thought the smell was gone, but then it returned!!!!! Thank you so much for including me in the journey, I am sure we will talk more about the adventures.. I understand "Home sweet Home"