ANC-OK-KS

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June 26, 2007-June 27, 2007
Arrived at the ANC airport in good time. Though we did not pay attention to which terminal, north or south. Went to south first and of course we had to go back to the north one for Continental. More signs would have been nice. Took advantage of curbside baggage check in which was rather nice. Once I got in the airport there were many people in the building. Stood in line for a bit before getting through, had to put gels, pastes and liquids into my small ziploc while standing in line, forgot to do that at home. Now I'm waiting with so many people, so many in fact we are sitting on the floor lining the hallway. All seats are taken. I wonder where people are all headed? I suppose they are going on vacation. Families, kids, dogs, definitely those who are going home after being here from fishing and hunting. Some sunburned but mostly pale Alaskans heading for the sun. Taking off soon and very excited about it!


Day One, Thursday, June 28, 2007
Piddling around as we are trying to leave OKC. Stop at Elan’s friends first to drop off his key. We could have stayed there last night but decided to stay by Elan instead.

A few of you wanted as much information as possible so I’ll try but can’t promise.

Elan is driving and I am typing our way through OK, easier to type than write or wait till the evening to remember what we’ve done and seen. But first we are making a detour to a store that sells Israeli t-shirts. Elan has a couple and you can see them in the picture.

The rain makes it difficult to see much. Stopped raining.

Found the store, Brigadoon’s, Army/Navy Surplus, has the Israeli t-shirts. Now back to the weigh station to weigh the car fully loaded. Still raining. Still grey skies, listening to Stonesour music. Turns out that I do know their music and I like it.

OKC is a rather large city area wise. At least I’m getting a nice tour of what I’d not normally see. When I was here in Dec 2004 we drove around a bit but not like now. Train tracks, stopped by a train, long one too, many minutes later we go across. Lucy is in the background; we’ve turned off her voice though as she’s programmed to direct us to Wichita and we are not ready to head that way just yet. She faithfully keeps trying to get us on track though. Lucy is of course our Garmin, GPS direction finder. Since Elan’s license plate is XN, Elan named the Garmin after Lucy Lawless! And it is in honor of his Aunt Kathy.

The rain is coming down in buckets, roads are filling up with water, I think this is what we were trying to avoid by leaving today… it is now 3:00PM…still not out of OKC.

Stop at weigh station, Harley and rider taking a nap. He rode in from Louisiana and is waiting out the rain. I had just mentioned to Elan that we’d not seen any motorcycles on the road, big surprise with this weather. I do hope it is better weather soon though as we drive north.

3:20PM and we are heading finally to Wichita using Lucy’s directions, can’t see much of anything with rain.

A couple of hours later and we’ve crossed into Kansas, KS, still the same view, flat farmland. Cows periodically in OK, tried to get their picture but sometimes we got trucks instead!

Passing trucks is not something I’m big on, too much wind created and car can wobble. Elan though is a good driver and knows how to make it less nerve-wracking. Traffic on the road is not too bad but I do wish the rain would stop, makes it easier to see things.

Coming up on our first toll plaza, KS Turnpike. Still flat and farmland, some trees on the way though and there are rolling hills. I think if it were sunny I’d be more inclined to want to stop and look around at stuff. Just passed what looks like a wooden train bridge…

Reprogrammed Lucy to take us to Salina, KS. According to her we should arrive at around 9PM. We will see if we feel like stopping. We’ve only gone about 200 mi and our goal is 350 mi a day.

One thing we’ve found is that if one sees something that would be fun to take a photo of, say, “Middle Emma Creek”, it goes by too quickly and then one can’t go back easily to take the picture. But we did see the aforementioned creek. We’ve been deciding whether to stay on the freeway tomorrow, tonight we’ll probably find something near Salina, or go ff the freeway. Elan says that this is Kansas and the view is probably the same on either the freeway or a smaller side road. Though we might be able to find roadside vegetable stands easier. It seems the rain has passed as we can actually see blue sky now and the road is dry! Much nicer driving.

Rest stop just south of Salina, decided to eat dinner, lox and bagels! I brought some down from Alaska for Elan. At first I was going to bring some fresh salmon but then he said that his stuff was being picked up for the shipment to AK and he would not have any dishes to cook in or eat in. We did have to get a plate and a knife and some cups for the road. Saw some cows off to the side and took some pictures but I think they look like lumps. Scenery has not changed, still flat and farmland.

Arrived in Salina, home of astronaut, Steve Hawley. We’ve put in our next destination for Lucy to direct us to, Colorado Springs, CO. I don’t think Tod and Nancy are there but Jessica, Molly’s friend is. According to Lucy we’ll arrive there at 2AM but we plan on stopping in a couple of hours to find a place to sleep. We’ve just reached our first 300 miles! Only 3000+ miles still to go!!

First sun of the day!!! Almost 8PM and we have to use our sunglasses. We passed a car with a driver who was talking on the cell with the right hand and smoking with the left, that hand was on the wheel, but only when not smoking!

Just talked to Susan and Emma on the phone. What a concept really, to be able to be in contact with someone while driving on the road! About this time I expect one of you might be saying, “I remember when…” Coming into some more hilly country finally and just saw a couple of motorcycles on the road headed east.

Stayed the night in Hays, KS.

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Photos

Leaving ANC
Next time I see this view I'll be on my way to Boston!