The Traipse Accord

Wishful thinking departure time: We didn’t have one today. We decided to wander around St. Louis a bit and take our time leaving.
Actual departure time: 1 p.m.

After a great stay in a snazzy hotel, we packed up the car and parked further downtown to walk around. The first sight we came across was this statue (we thought it was great that it was called Stifel!). I noticed you could see the bull’s balls but the bear didn’t have any, so we wondered if it was also a commentary on gender issues. J

Walking further down the street we came across a Jefferson memorial building and realized the arch was very close to it. After getting these shots we walked across the street to a park with this statue.

And further down from that we found a little park with a small waterfall and a public swimming hole. In front of that there was a Christian revival going on, where everyone was praying to God about their financial problems. Across the street from that was a Hooters.

At about 1:30 we decided it was time to depart for our 10-hour driving day, and as we were leaving the city we drove by the Cardinals Stadium which was huge! We tried to get pictures as we wound our way around it, and I wish we had known we were so close to the stadium “village” as they called it. Then we passed by the St. Louis train station which was beautiful, and the St. Louis Science Center and St. Louis Zoo.

We saw a number of interesting signs and places today, including another church called Salem, except this one had a symbol of a flaming cross. Then we entered Town and Country, MO, and I had to check online whether or not it was a town or a city (it’s a city). We crossed into Weldon Spring via a bridge that simply had a sign that read “Narrow Lanes”, and later on passed a person-like figure on the side of the highway made out of construction barrels. We also passed by Schnuck’s grocery store and a sign for the Horseshoe Pitching Hall of Fame. And apparently in MO, if you hit a road worker, it’s the same fine as before, $10,000, but you lose your license. Um, way less harsh punishment than in Illinois!

Other fun signs were Frumpy Joe’s , the Amish Furniture Gallery in Mexico, MO, Bucksnort, Knob Noster, Lake Topowingo, and Tonganoxie. We saw a couple billboards for an insurance website “Anything Can Happen.” The first sign depicted a Tyrannosaurus Rex eating a car in front of an erupting volcano. The second one showed a house being abducted by a UFO.

We also passed by an electric highway sign that read “Where’s your baby? Look before you lock”, and a billboard that said “In the beginning, GOD CREATED,” showing a picture of the evolution of man crossed out below the number 800-xxx-TRUTH.

 

The one thing we were surprised to see was a rotary. J

We finally reached our halfway point in Topeka, KS, where we found the one Asian restaurant they had called “Taste of Asia.” The menu was very similar to the Dragon Dynasty menu (the restaurant we used to live next door to in Worcester). After that we passed by these three apparently abandoned houses that had pictures placed over the windows and doors. One house had Dr. Seuss characters on it, another had Looney Tunes characters, and the third had drawings of pretty windows and a door. They were across from a school and we have no idea why they looked like this. One guy driving by in his pickup truck yelled out to me, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Apparently not everyone recognizes the camera technology in a smart phone.

Then we wandered around their downtown and came across the Kansas Statehouse, which had at the top of the dome a statue of a naked Indian shooting an arrow. 

Near that was a statue with its back toward us, and when we got closer we saw it was a life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln (beautifully crafted). 

Then we got a picture of a plaque on the sidewalk that read this

Bob Dole approves this placard. J

We decided it was time to move on, since we still had another 5 hours of driving and it was about 8 p.m. So got onto Route 70 W and got a picture of the clouds rolling in.

Around 10 p.m. in Abilene, Mother Nature started her own light show (screw the dozens of fireworks places we’ve seen so far- this was way more epic). You could see clear across the fields and the entire sky lit up, like someone was playing with a huge flashlight. Once in a while we saw individual streaks of lightning that were really stunning. The storm seemed pretty far from us, but we checked the radio for tornado warnings. There were none, only a severe thunderstorm warning until 12:45 a.m. We were okay until it was a sudden downpour with light hail mixed in. I started to get a bit nervous and then had to go to the bathroom, so at the next sign we saw with symbols for gas, food and lodging we took it (exit 199).

It was 11:15 p.m. and we had no idea if anything would be open. So we came across the first gas station that was closed, but noticed a sign that said Business District. We turned down a dirt road (which honestly I would not have gone down if I was by myself) and came across a small building with a lit Open sign. Walking in we discovered it was bar, the only place open for miles and miles. It was called the Old 40 Bar and Grill in Dorrance, and the bartender told us it was a population of 80 people. He was the son of the owner (I think he said his name was Aaron). He said he came in just for that night to help his dad- normally he lives an hour away.

So we probably wouldn’t have been able to find the bar in the GPS if we had searched for a place to stop. Aaron asked how we came across it and I mentioned the sign on the highway and the business district. He laughed and said, “There are three businesses in the ‘district.’ Here, the post office next door, and a company that makes the large breakaway backboards for the NBA. Do you believe that? A town this small has the company that makes something for the NBA. I think their taxes are the only thing keeping this town open!”  

All over the place people had written their names on the wood plank ceiling and wooden window frames, so we added ours to the mix. They also had signs up like, “Many have eaten here. Few have died,” or “Let us roll you a fatty” for these Killer Tacos from a restaurant in CA. Grant said in the men’s room they had a sign that said, “We aim to keep this bathroom clean. Your aim will help.”

There was also a group of guys waiting out the storm, who were at a nearby lake for a bachelor party. Aaron told us it was the cleanest lake in Kansas with a high salt content. He also said we were about 35 minutes from the center of Kansas and an hour from the center of the country. I thought that was pretty cool, because as we were getting ready to leave another woman walked in asking for food. Aaron said they had ham and cheese sandwiches for $3 made that day and she took one. She said she had been traveling for a while and was trying to make it to Colorado that night. When he asked where she was from she said, “New York.” Aaron pointed to us, saying we were from MA. So she asked where we were going and I said, “Orange, CA.” She laughed and said, “Oh wow, I’m driving to LA!” Isn’t that crazy? In the middle of the country we met another Northeasterner on her way to CA. Her name was Anna.

We also got helpful tips from Aaron about the area. He told us to go to Russell for a rest stop but not Hays, because they expect tourists coming from the highway and they don’t post their gas prices so they can gouge you. And supposedly they have the world’s only 5-legged beaver, but it costs $12.50 to get into the building, and then it’s only a stuffed animal that looks totally fake. We told him about seeing the world’s largest chime, tee and knitting implements in Casey, Ill., but how we got to see all of them for free. He replied, “Apparently Kansas has to charge people or else it would never make money.”

This place was such a great stop, like something you would see in a movie where the people on a road trip have to pull over because of a storm and luckily find the only place open late at night. Now, in some cases that’s the premise of a horror movie. But this one turned out to be the scene where you learn about the local flavor of the place. We didn’t want to leave, but we still had to make it to Goodland, KS by that night. We left about 12:15 a.m. and made it to the hotel with no problems. The clerk even offered to keep breakfast open an hour later for us the next day and gave us late checkout without me even asking. All in all it was a wonderful day!

License plates we saw:
2:43- Oregon
2:49- South Dakota
3:36- Alaska (we were SO hoping for this one!)
4:14- Mississippi and Louisiana
4:34- North Dakota