After tennis Aunt Lou suggested Chipotle for lunch, and since Toto had never been there we were all for it. It was sooo good (I LOVE Chipotle). Toto had a chicken fajita salad, I had a steak salad and Aunt Lou had some sort of salad as well.
We drove out of Denver on I-70, and it became flat and hot and boring very rapidemente. I have been practicing my Spanish the whole trip. I love talking to Toto in Spanish and seeing if she understands. For instance, “Necesito ir el baño por favor.” I would say to her and she would say “Well there’s still 87 miles to the next rest stop.” Sometimes I would say something like “No me gusta el tiempo en Colorado por que es más color que Oregon.” And she would look at me questioningly and I would explain “I don’t like the weather in Colorado because it is hotter than Oregon.” That statement is a lie but I was trying to practice since I won’t be taking any span over the summer. ANYHOWS! Hot and flat. Pretty much sums up Eastern CO and all of KS. We had to come up with ways to entertain ourselves.
The first of these random activities came upon us right after we crossed the CO/KS border. We were in Goodland, looking for a post office so I could mail some post cards (I need to buy post card stamps) and Toto decided she wanted a swirl cone from Dairy Queen. You may have read about what I am about to say on FB yesterday, but still. They didn’t have swirl because their chocolate machine was broken. Ok. No big. Toto got a vanilla cone (which the vanilla was messed up too but Toto said she didn’t mind it so much) and I opted for nothing because if they didn’t have what I wanted I didn’t need anything (I had tried to get a swirl cone in Wyoming the other day and they only had vanilla at McDonalds). Then we discovered that because we had changed into Central Time that the post office in Goodland was closed so I couldn’t get my stamps. Es muy triste (it was very sad). The next town we saw there was a tall DQ sign so I pointed and we went there. They only had vanilla at that moment. Ok, little frustrated but it’s not the end of the world. Toto thought it was rather entertaining though. The next town we stopped in also had a DQ, not right off the freeway, we had to go find it, but we did. But alas, they don’t have a swirl machine nor do they have chocolate on Mondays. What the flying f#@$?!?!?! Ok, at that point I was rather irritated. I made some very outraged and upset noises and Toto was in tears she was laughing so hard. I mean this hunt for the swirl cone was the only thing we had to keep us sane in this boring state, and at this point it wasn’t keeping us sane at all. Toto wondered aloud if Kansas DQ’s didn’t have swirl cones because they felt that they might invite tornados to come around because they resembled a twister…we texted this to Dad and he thought she might be onto a local superstition there. Toto said to me “We’re never going to get out of Kansas if we have to stop at every little Podunk town in search of a swirl cone for you.” I then had a very one sided hypothetical conversation which still makes us break into tears when recalling it: I said “’So what did you do today Leslie?’ Someone will ask you Toto. Then you will say ‘Oh, I went to 632 dairy queens, you?’” And we laughed. Hard. We only had 25 or 30 miles to go till we got to Hays, KS so I cheated at this point and called ahead to the Hays DQ and asked if they had swirl cones. “Of course we do!” the girl answered chipperly. “Do you have both vanilla and chocolate? And are they both in working order?!” I double checked. “Yes they are.” I explained to her that I had been thwarted by the ice cream gods for a few days in my search for a swirl cone and she giggled. So I FINALLY got my cone in Hays last night.
At one point I made a comment about the fact that Kansas seemed like such a hopeless state. It was making me feel hopeless just looking at it for hours and hours. Toto giggled at that. It really was though. There is so little to look at (and by little I mean absolute nothingness) that things that you have shoved to the back of your mind have a chance to trickle back up to the surface. It was a very long day of pondering life and its events and faith and all sorts of other things.
At some point in the afternoon Toto turns to me and says, “Kansas is a little like Hell.” It was funny because I had taken to yelling at U-Hauls things like “GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!” and “RUN! FAR FAR AWAY! GO NOW!!” Urging them to get out of this god forsaken land while they still had the opportunity and didn’t get caught in a twister. We wondered why the Indians had wanted this land so bad when the white men came in and took it over. And for that matter, why did the white men want to take it away from the Indians in the first place? I mean, even the birds were bored. They were playing chicken with our car all the way across the state. And the crappiest part about this is that Kansas can’t help but have a bad rap. It’s like the poor kid who can’t help it that their parents can’t afford to buy them new shoes and they get made fun of by the other kids. It’s not their fault. I kind of feel bad for Kansas. But that doesn’t mean I want to live there, or ever drive through it again. And Josh better be appreciative that we had to endure Kansas for him.
We got to Topeka at eleven pm central time, and I looked at Toto and said “I haven’t seen this much civilization since Denver!” and I wasn’t basing it on anything but the amount of concrete I was seeing in overpasses and off ramps and the like. KC (Kansas City) was only 45 minutes East of Topeka, but we had to go on a toll road, which was the worst section of I-70 to date. Good thing it only cost us $2.50, otherwise I might have refused to pay, especially because the toll booth gal was a grumpy dumpy little woman, maybe she didn’t like Kansas so much either, Toto reflected later.
We got to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express off of exit 224 on the very West side of KC) at midnight. We got unloaded and checked in and into bed and practically melted into the beds. They were SO AMAZING. Serta or Sealy Posterpedic…we did not want to get out of bed this morning, but we did. I even wanted to pack the mattress in my bag, but I wasn't sure how well it would fit. And now we are somewhere in Missouri on our way to St. Louis.
Will write about today later.
Oh, want to give a shout out of congrats to our friend Andre Wang who welcomed his son Reagan Wang into the world on June 5th! We are so happy for you and Lisa!!
Sean
License Plates Seen
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Playlist
Simon & Garfunkle
SheDaisy
Moody Blues
Foreigner
Fleetwood Mac
Eagles
Rascal Flatts
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