After we spent a couple of hours in St. Louis, we had to make up some time. It was dark, and there isn't much to see in Northern Missouri anyhow. Neil fell asleep, so I spent a little time with myself.
The roads were barren, except for a few truckers. It was almost depressing, and had I not remembered the end result I may have decided to end the trip there. It was important that I kept the end goal fresh in my head at this point. The darkness seemed to reflect how I felt at this point.
What was I doing? Was I crazy? Driving across the country for esentially no reason? Alone with my thoughts, I really began to second guess myself. I hoped that once we got out of Missiouri, things would change.
Neil woke up after about a six hour nap, but I was still good to drive. Somehow I made it close to 10 hours without a problem. The sun started to rise, so I started to feel better. After Neil took over in the pilot's chair, it was my turn to nap. I was pretty tired, but it didn't last very long. Close to 24 hours in, the road had started to take its toll on us.
Neil began speaking of truck stops where you could take a shower. I didn't disagree, but an Oklahoma truck stop isn't exactly the kind of place you stop at to feel clean. Shower or no, I figured it would be a while before I felt comfortable.
We found what we thought was the truck stop, and it looked rather run down. Broken windows and old yellow stained walls that were a relic of the road trips of yesterday. I was not impressed.
Thankfully we were at the wrong place, and they only had bathrooms. I had just downed three Monster's, they were a welcome sight. I was very thankful they were not the place with showers, and we hopped back on the road.
We found the right place, and it was a complete turn around from what we had just witnessed. Clean and brand new, it seemed like the perfect place to take a shower. Clean and brand new, we paid our ten dollars and went to it.
After the shower and a nap, my mood improved greatly. I went from rapid changes in emotion to an overall feeling of wellness. We began to see big giant crosses that made you wonder who in the city allowed those monstrocities to be built. Then you remember that the speration of church and state doesn't really exist in the bible belt.
Between the bland flatness and churches, I wonder why the suicide rate doesn't surpass the rest of the country by leaps and bounds.
We passed through Tulsa and not much happened. An hour or so out of Oklahoma City, I was reminded of the terrible storms that had ripped through the area not even a month prior. The reason I was reminded because we were stuck in a very similar storm.
As we reached the middle of the day, the sky was once again creased in half. It began to get very, very windy. I was no driving, and I had to fight to keep control of the car. I thought about pulling over and waiting for the wind to die down, but since we could habe been there for hours I figured it would not be a wise choice.
As the storm grew closer, I realized it was not like the storm we passed in Illinois. This one was evil. I was in the left lane, not using it for passing as intended. In the right lane, also not following the rules, was a big semi-truck.
The wind began to pick up, and the truck began to swerve. Although I was already a car length or so behind him, I figured it would be best to lay off even more. My mind was put at ease at his rate of acceleration. But we were both making mistakes in putting our faith in his driving.
As we passed an over pass, there were a couple of cars parked underneith. "Scared people just waiting it out", I thought. Apparently everyone was scared, because the farther we went, the more difficult it became to pass the overwhelming amount of cars under the overpass. They had turned into one lane highway. And then I saw it.
Dirt was turned up in a strip that spanned across the entire horizon. It was clear a tornado had just run through Oklahoma.
For miles, semis were turned over on both sides of the high way, and then we passed the very truck I had seen just 20 miles earlier. It was in the middle of the highway, with the cab straight up in the air like it was pointing to the sky.
Had we been keeping up with that truck instead of slowing down, we may have ended up underneath their trailer.
I'm not exactly sure how we made it through Oklahoma as quick as we did, but I'm glad that we did. A pretty boring place, I can say with confidence I'll never go back unless forced.
It was important to Neil that we made it somewhere in order to watch the Blackhawks game. Thankfully we made the wise choice to stop in Amarillo, Texas for the game...
(continued in part 6)
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