You will never guess how the trip started. Or should I say, how the trip stopped-repeatedly. The first item on the agenda was to stop for gas. Second, to drive until we needed more gas. Let’s guess how these two things worked out.
We did get gas like planned, but we quickly realized it was going to be a different trip with a third person, second vehicle, and one U-haul. Within a minute of leaving the gas station, Nathan realized he forgot his cigarettes in the U-haul. That was just a quick stop at the last gas station before the interstate. Finally, ready for the road. Well not quite.
The lights on the trailer stopped working. Once again we stopped, this time before we got out of the gas station. After I stopped, I flipped the lights on from automatic and they were fixed. We were on the road again. For how long you ask? About 22 hours. Well, not continuously.
After about twenty minutes, Nathan called again. “Umm I forgot, I need to use the bathroom.” Who forgets to use the bathroom before a trip? Well that would be my brother. We stopped at a gas station again and Nathan was able to relieve himself. After this we left him on speaker phone and continued like he was in the car with us. That was a great idea.
I can’t tell you how many times we heard, “gosh, darnit, I forgot this, I forgot that. Oh darnit, Chip, you rolled down the windows.” It got to the point where we would just burst out laughing every time he started to swear, because we knew what happened: he remembered something stupid he forgot to do. We were lucky though; none of if turned out to be anything serious. The worst thing he forgot were the keys to his toolbox, which he thought was the end of the world.
We weren’t out of San Antonio until about two in the morning. San Antonio has the same population as Iowa - the entire state of Iowa. It’s a wonder they take the same amount of time to drive through.
Jessica was sound asleep for a long time. After having promised to drive quote, “the entire night” she proceeded to sleep for the entire night. At five in the morning, the road started to do something weird. It started to move and at that point, like I said an hour before, it was time for a rest stop. Within a few miles we came upon a “picnic stop” and we pulled off and parked between about 15 semis, with the same thought in mind, “time for a picnic.”
I shut off the engine, leaned my seat back, grabbed my pillow, and I was out in seconds. All my life, I’ve always been able to sleep well in cars; something about the motion of driving that just makes me relax. I woke up about an hour later and it felt like eight because I was ready to go. I called Nathan and he didn’t answer. So I got up and walked back to his car and knocked on the window. I think he literally jumped, full body lying down, his entire body left his seat. “15 more minutes,” was the only thing I could decipher from what he mumbled.
Walking back to my vehicle I thought about the amount of sleep I had gotten since we left Tuesday night at six. The previous “day” I slept for about two hours at Nathan’s and I got about an hour of sleep while Jessica was driving through Texas. With this hour I was at four, an amount that makes me able to, at the bare minimum, be able to function properly.
After ten minutes, Nathan was already calling my phone. It was time to get “on the road again” as we liked to say. Nate thought it was a good idea to let Chip get a break to and let him out of the car to run around. What followed was five of the most hilarious minutes of my life. I went to get Chip and Nathan says, “Don’t worry, he won’t run off.”
Over the next five minutes Chip ran in the grass, went under the U-haul and chased the bugs. The only thing he didn’t do was go to Nathan. Finally he stopped for a breather and Nathan did his best James Bond impersonation and tried to “creep” up to Chip. While this was happening I was imagining the “Jaws” theme song with every step. “Dunnunt, dunnunt, dunnut, DUNNUNNANNA.” Finally he got Chip back with one final reach of the hands. I was dying watching Nathan try to sneak up to his cat, which was staring at him the entire time.
After the cat trap was a success, we got back on the road. It wasn’t long before we were finally out of Texas. Going through Oklahoma felt kind of strange. The landscape was pretty rocky and I still can’t determine if it was pretty or just strange. It felt like a different planet. Then again I couldn’t really enjoy the sights as much as my sister as I was driving. I do remember passing by the El Chico Café and a Texas Roadhouse. I still can’t figure out why there was a Boy Café and a Texas Roadhouse all in Oklahoma. Either way, it wasn’t long before we were entering Kansas.
Somewhere between Oklahoma and Missouri, Jessica finally took the wheel. It was sometime around nine in the morning that she felt it was time for her to take over. I slept for about three hours and was awoken after we stopped for gas. For some reason, my debit card wasn’t working at the pump and fifteen minutes, one toll and another phone call later we had the answer. Despite there being a travel advisory on my card, the company that makes the debit cards felt it was necessary to try and stop me from being able to use it. From that point on I had to use the debit option and put my pin in wherever we stopped. I felt a little worried after the toll when I had to spend $40 of the cash I brought for emergencies.
Going through Kansas City, Missouri, I noticed my brother’s tire looked a little funny. He said it was fine; he never got it balanced before he left like he was supposed to. Anyways, I figured I was imagining his tire looking strange and we went on with our drive. About an hour from Iowa we pulled off to get more gas and that was when we discovered Nathan’s critical error. His tire was halfway gone. I should clarify: half of his tire looked fine. The other half looked like it was almost on the rim of the tire. Not flat, but as if someone went around and shaved off half of one side of the tire all the way around.
So like a good millenial I went to google to find the answer. Within five minutes I was on the phone with a mechanic from Winston Missouri. “I’ll be there in five minutes. I already gotta fix someone’s tire up there. You can follow me back from there.” He had just pulled four tires Nathan needed off of another car that day. Phew, the first thing he said was it would take a day for a new tire.
Winston, Missouri felt like home. It was a town with gravel roads and it reminded me of Ellendale. The people were friendly and our mechanic said he had only ever visited Minnesota one time in his entire life. Forty bucs later, and one tire later, we were back on the road.
The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, albeit I finally took a wrong exit in Iowa, but we got turned around right away and eventually made it home safely. All in all, the trip took about 22 hours. We left at midnight and got home at 9:45 p.m.