~This trip is broken up into 3 parts. It was an epically long trip and therefore is an epically long blog, so look for the other 2 parts~

CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO

Travel log

September 12th • Day 14:

I woke up with flies tickling my face at 6:50am with the horrible toxic smell still there to greet me as well. Ugh. I tried to go back to sleep, but the flies were annoying the crap out of me. I also went to sleep later than I wanted to because I was trying to air out the room. It was about 1:30am before I finally fell asleep. Sigh…I got up and headed to the shower.

I thought I was gonna have to take a lukewarm at best shower, but then it started to heat up eventually. It took an unusual amount of time. Then when I finally starting to get warm water, it was shifting from scorching hot to ice cold every few seconds the entire rest of my shower. I thought maybe it was because someone else was right next door to me in the shower at the same time, but I didn’t hear anything. After my shower, the flies greeted me again and continued to make me want to murder their entire species. I opened up the door to try and get rid of them and get some fresh air again only to be met by the whole area smelling like cow shit. Oh yeah…I forgot about that. Honestly, the smell of poop was a step up from the toxic concoction of smells inside. This was not a good place for a person with a nose like a bat.

I busted out of that motel around 9:40am. That was the first place that I couldn’t wait to get out of. The entire town of Burlington, Colorado looks a little rundown and it has a lot of motor inns and motels. Very strange. Does everyone in the town live in motels?

I found a place called Good Grounds Coffee & Bistro in Goodland, Kansas a half hour from where I was staying. I had a couple of English muffins with cheese and eggs and got a yummy espresso drink. It was really good. Cute place.

The World’s Largest Easel was 3 minutes away and there was a sign pointing in the direction of it, so that was an easy find. It was so tall that it was hard to get a good photo of it. I needed a crane. I actually saw it the night before while driving to the hotel. It looked gorgeous lit up by humongous flood lights. There were no signs at the location of the easel and no information about it whatsoever. It was just there. I thought it was weird that there was nothing about who built it, at least. The directional arrows pointing towards it was it as far as information.

Then it was an hour and half drive to Mount Sunflower, Kansas’s highest peak! 28 minutes before arriving, you leave the paved roads for dirt ones. Lots of cornfields, plains and happily still lots of mini sunflowers lining the roads. This has been a reoccurring theme this entire trip. Basically more of the same.

When I was about 10 minutes away from Kansas’s Mt. sunflower, it got a little muddy on the road. I started thinking about all of the posts I’ve seen of people getting stuck on the way to this one in the high pointing Facebook group. It’s hilarious to think that anyone would fail at “summiting” this extremely easy “high point”, but it does happen. I started to get a tiny bit concerned, but it stayed drivable. The Black Walnut handled it just fine! Hell, I’d been on much worse roads on other parts of the trip already.

When you get to the point to turn onto Washboard Road, Mt. Sunflower is 1 mile away. I was a bit worried the roads would get worse. Fortunately, they did not. When I got out to photograph the sign pointing to Mount Sunflower, I got attacked by like 1,000 sand spurs. I kept forgetting those assholes were all over the plains. I apparently only think they are down in southern states like Florida where I experienced them unfortunately often as a kid. They prevented me from running around barefoot in the grass like I wanted.

Side note: I love how everything is SUNFLOWERS in Kansas!!!! On the welcome to Kansas sign there are sunflowers. At the bistro where I had breakfast, they had a painting with sunflowers. I passed tons of businesses with sunflower in the name. They have the worlds largest easel, which is actually a replica of the Van Gogh painting called, “Sunflowers”. Then, of course there’s Mount Sunflower, their not at-all-a-mountain-High Point.

When I first got there, I signed the guestbook, took a couple of photos of the entire scene and hung out with the cows. It was so adorable. The moment I got there, they were curious and the entire herd came closer to check me out and investigate what I was doing. They were much much further away when I first drove up. They ended up getting very close to me while they walked right behind the Mount Sunflower sign and then moved along. The young ones seemed incredibly curious about me. One little one stayed behind to just stand there and stare at me for a really long time until mama mooed at her to get her butt moving. “Don’t stare at the weird girl standing where we shit.”

I was up there about a half hour before a family of 6 drove up and piled out of a car. It was just me hanging out with the cows, so I didn’t mind the company. I asked if they wanted my help in taking a family photo of all of them in front of the sign when they started lining up to take some. I posed them all and gave them my giant sunflower props to hold. Then when they left, I went back to playing with the wind and dancing…

As I was getting ready to leave after about an hour in (including the family photo shoot), I saw another car pull up around 2:30. A guy, I now know as Keith got out of his car alone. The moment he got out and saw me in all my sunflower garb, he asked if I was the Mt. Sunflower mascot.

“Bahahaha” I said, “No, I’m the Welcoming Committee”
“Really?” He said convincingly.
“No dude” I said, and then laughed at him.

We found out right away that we were both high pointers and in the same group on Facebook (although he is not very active in it). This was number 42 for him and my 36. He told me about climbing Denali (Alaska’s highest peak and the highest in the country) and showed me photos. That was the first one he did! His high peaking adventures are all down hill from that point. I showed him photos from my adventures as well, but I had nothing close to Denali! He started telling me what he thought was a good order to do some of the ones I had left in: Guadalupe in Texas next then Wheeler Peak in New Mexico. Then Mt. Elbert (Colorado), Kings Peak (Utah), Boundary (Nevada) and Whitney (California). He has done all of those already, so he only included the ones he knows about personally.

While we were chatting about everything, we were interrupted a few times by me photographing other people that came and went briefly. We still remained. He was back to having fun helping me take photos front of the sign and chatting. He asked me to show him my hammock set-up in my car at one point. I was happy to be out of the intense sun for a minute as I was laying in my hammock chatting with him standing outside of my car. Moments after when an elderly couple came up, I jumped out of my hammock and went to play photographer for them as well. They thought it was interesting that I just came from doing Nebraska’s high peak and was moving on to Oklahoma’s after Kansas and he just got done with Oklahoma’s and was doing Kansas on his way to Nebraska. Two high pointers just passing by each other and meeting randomly. The lady was hinting that it was meant to be that we met in such an odd way, however she didn’t notice his wedding ring. Haha! It’s OK…they were traveling celebrating 50 years of marriage, so she had romance on the mind.

I LOVED playing the Mount Sunflower unofficial photographer for the day! I fell into the role very easily and had the best time! I did it repeatedly during the four hours I ended up being there. ANNOUNCER: Lineup for RED’s photos at Mount sunflower! Didn’t come with your own props? No problem. RED’S got you covered. Ladies do you want sunflowers in your hair? She’s got a baggie of all sorts of different colors to match any outfit! (true story). You want the unofficial Sunflower mascot in your photos with you? No problem!

I left the High Point at 5 PM as two other cars were pulling in. I spent three hours and 45 minutes there! That’s the longest time I have ever spent at a high point summit. I was definitely still increasingly getting darker skin. My nose was cooked. All those hours again with no shade. Talk about getting my vitamin D in before winter hibernation sets in. After nearly 4 hours, I knew I had to get going because I had a long drive ahead of me. We exchanged numbers because he asked me if I wanted to come with him on some of the mountains I have coming up that he hasn’t done yet either. I definitely want someone with me when I do the really hard ones. It’s just safer that way. I also gave him my card so he could see my blog that he is in now. Ha!

Anyway, I finally got on the road and drove straight down through the entire east side of Colorado. Same boring flat prairies. Ugh. I can’t wait until I explore the west side of Colorado on another trip when I do the highest peak there. I longed to see the mountainous west side, but not on this trip. I was bummed when the sun started setting because I wanted to see if Colorado’s terrain on the east side would ever change or if it doesn’t change until Oklahoma. I only had about two hours of driving in the dark on my 4 hour trek, but that was a very long two hours. It was pitch black, so I kept getting blinded by the sparse oncoming traffic and there was a lot of construction. There were a couple of points where I had to stop and wait for other traffic to go first. A lot of sitting around.

I got some snacks at a gas station when I filled up and cleaned all the bugs off of my window before I could relax finally at my motel. I got to the Longhorn Motel in Boise City, Oklahoma around 10:30pm. I ate snacks in bed while I looked at some of my photos and enjoyed chatting with friends about my fun-filled day. So, so much unexpected fun…

September 13th • Day 15:

Today’s plan included my fifth and final high peak of the trip, Oklahoma’s highest peak, Black Mesa! This was a total last minute add-on, so I didn’t look into it very much and therefore knew little about it. I also, had no plans for my summit photo which I’ve started to think about beforehand on my last several, so I can be sure to bring a certain outfit or props. So, I was going to wing it like I used to! I’m still doing a slightly different pose for every state high peak and it is getting harder to pose near signs or monuments and not duplicate anything. Haha! How I love my challenges…

I woke up at five something again, but went back to sleep after going to the bathroom and slept till 9am. I went through a few notifications on my phone then jumped in the shower around 10 finally. It felt good to actually get a really decent nights sleep, but I was still slow moving and no doubt starting to wind down from the non-stop daily action and driving.

I was shocked to find out that Boise city, the town I spent the night in, had only a population of 1,166! I ‘d heard of this town and it seemed like it was much larger than that. I figured it must be known for some thing I was not aware of. But also there is a chance that I’m stupid and was thinking of Boise, Idaho with a population of 235,684.

I was on the road by 11:10 AM which is much later than I would’ve liked to be on the road because I still needed to find food. The town looked old and a bit rundown. I just got on the county road heading toward the Kenton Museum before hiking Black Mesa because I wanted to get my certificate of completion for the high point because it would be closed by the time I was done actually hiking it. I figured I’d find food on the way. Wrong. I never really cared about collecting certificates before, but if I know about it…I try to get them without going too far out of my way. Not every state gives out certificates either. So, I collect photos of every place. That’s my thang. Some people like to find the benchmark of every high peak or they feel like they didn’t complete the mission, but again…some places don’t either have them or they are so hidden that finding them is impossible (Florida anyone?). I like to keep things simpler. Don’t get me wrong, I still search for the benchmark, but if I can’t find it, I don’t stress about it. I’ll stick to my fun photos at the summits.

Oklahoma plains are slightly different than what I’d been seeing because they have little green trees or shrubbery sparsely placed throughout them. It’s a bit more interesting and I loved seeing the splash of green. Closer to the tiny town and high point, things started to get a little bit more rocky and mountainous.

So, I found the museum was closed when I got there, so I went down the street to the Mercantile which I heard had some food. I still hadn’t eaten. I asked the lady behind the counter about the museum being closed and she informed me that Dewey, the guy that ran the Kenton Museum, died on Labor Day. He lived across the street from the museum and ran it, built it up and gave out Black Mesa Certificates. She said that he loved adding to the museum and took a lot of pride in it.

I was slightly bummed that I couldn’t get the certificate because I made the effort to go there, but I switched my focus to food. Supposedly The Mercantile typically has a limited menu, but she informed me that the town was having a community luncheon at noon right down the street for six dollars, so she wasn’t opening up her restaurant portion of her shop until about 1:30 when that was over. Also, the food she typically serves is burgers, hotdogs and other things I wouldn’t eat anyway. So that sucked because I was starving and getting ready to hike to the highest peak of Oklahoma! No big deal. She invited me to the luncheon and I thought about it because it was about to start, but I thought against it. I didn’t want to get so caught up in conversations and grub that it put me at an even later start than I was already going to have. Also, being a vegetarian in a meat eating town made me think that I’d have little to actually eat there. So I grabbed a few unhealthy snacks off of the shelves and just hoped it was enough to fuel me for my hike. Before she rang me out, she was talking to a regular sitting at an old table and chairs reading the paper. She was asking him about who does the certificates now that Dewey is gone. He thought that she had them now at the store, but she just recently bought the place and had no clue about any of that. She told me to wait while she called up Dewey’s son to ask him. When she hung up, she told me to head back to the museum and that he was going to meet me there to open up the place and look for the them. Awww! I loved everything about that interaction because NONE of that would ever happen in a big town and I just adored it! Every bit of it! Damn, I love that small town niceness!

Before I left, I asked her what the population of the town was. She said that now it’s at “only six or seven because they keep losing people like Dewey recently”. She said that not long ago, it used to be at 17. Sad, but what a cute old west looking town. There were only a few buildings that were not collapsing in town and they looked extremely old looking. The Mercantile was over 100 years old and the museum looked just as old. It was just one very short street of “town” which just had the Mercantile, the museum and a post office in a trailer as far as I could tell. Then there were a few houses scattered around other streets and a cemetery (which was on the main road as well). The lady at the counter said that she didn’t know who was going to take over and run the museum now that Dewey was gone. That is really, really sad news.

So Dewey’s son and granddaughter came and opened up the museum for me to take a peek and I could tell right away that it was a labor of small town love. That made me ever sadder to know that they have no one to run it anymore. They let me in to look around while they both searched to find where he might have stashed the certificates because only he knew apparently. She eventually found them. They told me that there was a house behind the museum that was made up as a replica of what life would’ve been like back then. It was all set up with real antiques by Dewey. They asked if I would like to see it and of course I did! I thanked them profusely for opening it up for me and letting me look around. I thought that was incredibly sweet that they took the time to do that for a stranger. He told me that they were on their way out the door to do something out of town, so if The Mercantile lady would have called just a couple of minutes later, then I would not have seen any of that or got the certificate. He and his daughter then wrote down a list of bed-and-breakfast places to stay in the area if I wanted to stay after my hike in the area before moving along. Super nice people.

As we were chatting and walking back to our cars, a cricket the size of a giant bird jumped and hit my shin. I just started laughing and asked what the deal was with the large population of huge crickets there and all over the plains. He laughed and told me that there was a hymn about how many crickets there are from North Dakota down to Oklahoma in the plains. Which is hilarious because I just did that drive! When he told me about it, I tried to write down the person’s name that did the song because I was dying to hear it, but when I looked later, my Notes app autocorrected whatever I was trying to say to, “Hi Coleman”. That’s just great. Can anyone help me out here? Then I asked him which animal is not doing his job and not gobbling them all up?! He said the horny toads probably eat some of them, but they’re just to far out of control.

After I parted ways with Dewey’s family, I drove around and found myself in the Kenton Cemetery. The moment I got there, I decided that I would try and find Dewey because I assumed he’d be buried there. I quickly realized that I needed more to go on then just the name, “Dewey”. Is that a nickname? What is his last name? No clue. It was a very small cemetery and I looked at all the new graves, but sadly no Dewey. All of the newer graves made me think of The Mercantile lady saying the town was at 17 not too long ago…

I got to the parking lot by 1:45, but didn’t actually start hiking until close to 2:30. I was getting my snack on, shoes on, and adjusting what I had in my backpack. I finally got moving when I saw another solo lady that looked a bit older than I heading towards the trail. “Yay”, I thought! I threw my backpack on and made a beeline for her and we started a conversation immediately even before we went through the gate. There were sand spurs everywhere.

I really enjoyed having Viola’s company for the first 2 miles. We were chatting away non-stop from the moment we met. She was pointing out different plants to me that are foreign to me being from Ohio especially when I’d stop to touch a pokey cactus or photograph something. She knew the names of many and information about them. That was really cool. It was like having my naturalist friend, Mel there with me. Aww!

She told me about the Tri-state marker of Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico and said that it was very close, but she hadn’t been there herself, yet. Her directions were to leave the parking lot to the high point…turn left…when the pavement ends turn left again…and voila! Um…so I can tell you now that those directions could have been much better, but we will talk about that in the next day’s log.

So, Viola was in town from another state to go to what was called A Star Party. I remembered that the son of Dewey asked me if that was why I was in town earlier! Apparently that’s a big draw there because of the dark skies at night. How cool! I didn’t know nerds flew in from all over to go to these Star Parties, but I kind of want to look into it more now. Also, she called it nerdy herself, so I’m just using her own words. Don’t hate me Star Party peoples!

A little after the 2 mile marker, Viola had to turn around to catch her Star Party evening lecture, and to get dinner. I was bummed to see her go. I asked her if she never intended on reaching the summit. She said that she did, but she just wanted to get out for a quick hike before the lecture and said that she intended to come back the next day when she had more time and do the entire hike. I hope she did. The B & B she was staying at was very close by, so she was just doing a bit of exploring before dinner. She asked where I was staying that night and I told her that I had no clue yet, but I’d figure something out. She mentioned that the place she was staying still had rooms open and I should come stay there when I was done with my hike. I saw the place she was staying on my drive there, so I was happy about the thought of staying so close and seeing the tri-point and trying to find some dinosaur quarry she told me about as well. Then she was gone and I was on my own…

The only other car in the parking lot besides Viola’s and mine was a truck and I saw an older couple coming down the mountain together at about the time Viola and I parted ways. I assumed that truck belonged to them and I was now alone for good then. Just me and the mountain.

Shortly after she turned around, that’s when the trail started to incline a little bit and then a lot. Here we go…Black Mesa is flat hike for 2 miles then a little after that It starts to incline and get pretty darn steep until you get to the top and then it flattens out again because… It’s a Mesa. A Mesa is defined as an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides. So, once you are at the top, It’s a mostly flat, windy hike over to the actual High Point monument. I didn’t have cell service the entire way up, but at the summit I did, so I posted a summit photo of me and tagged me at the highest peak on Facebook. Some people from the High Pointing Facebook group asked me about how the trail was because it’s known for rattlers and one guy in particular is really not wanting to run into them. Haha! I saw a lot of holes, but I did not see any beautiful rattlers, unfortunately.

At about the 3 mile marker I saw a single young guy come down from the summit. Where the hell did he come from?? I thought I had seen my last person. Then shortly after that once again, just when I thought I was not gonna see another soul on the mesa, I hear the voices of two young guys behind me. They were moving fast then they picked up their pace and went sprinting past me saying a breathy, “Hi!”. They looked to be teenagers. Then two more young dudes shortly after that. They must have been from the same group of kids because they ran past me to catch up with the others, after taking a short walking break. Yay people! I typically don’t say those words, but when on a mountain or in the woods alone, it has been making me feel better nowadays to see more humans.

I saw that all the kids were all together at the summit. There were still another two stragglers after that. All while I’m relaxing, enjoying the view and walking around the summit. They were all teenage boys. Six total. The two stragglers quickly took a selfie at the summit and went running fast to meet up with their friends that had already left the summit. I asked them if they wanted a picture together and they said a quick, “No that’s OK! Thank you” and sped along after spending a whole two seconds at the summit. It all happened very quickly, then I was alone again. They must live in the area and did it for some class extra credit or PE training or something.

I spent about 45 minutes at the summit. It was pretty and peaceful up there especially once I was totally alone for good. It’s always a bit scary to be at a summit alone especially when the sun is getting lower in the sky. That’s when all the animals are out getting dinner or the nocturnal scary ones, like mountain lions, start waking up. Most high points are in very remote locations, so that’s always a bit intimidating in itself. But I like it! I just sat on the bench up there taking it all in and watching the boys running to and fro, but after they quickly left I saw a small path that led to the very edge of the mesa to look over. No guardrails or anything…just edge. It was beautiful. I took a photo of the view. I was very grateful for cloud cover. However on the way down, it started getting even windier and it was getting chilly. I did not see another person on the entire descent. It would have been downright cold if I wasn’t hiking at a good speed, but I was trying to get back to my car before dark.

So, no rattler sightings, but I did get to see a gigantic tarantula walking toward me on the trail on the descent. I wasn’t able to get a photo because he was so fast and I was trying to take video instead, but I only ended up with one little quick snippet of video of him running away. I messed up and thought I hit record when I did not. AHHHHHHH! So mad! I thought I was recording me touching his widdle fuzzy butt, but that video only exists in my mind now, sadly. He kept up the same very fast pace the entire time I saw him. He was on a mission, man. I also saw many dung beetles and a bunch of other weird black beetles that are unknown to me and my naturalist friend, Mel. But no pronghorns, mountain lions, or rattlers, oh my!

Oklahoma’s view from the summit was much more exciting than Kansas’s high peak the day before. All you have there to look at is prairie, pasture, and moo-moos although they were sweet and curious girls. It was a very lovely hike and view for my very last high point of the trip. I was a little sad that I didn’t have any more planned, but I had more to see before going home still.

So the sun started to set when I was hiking back down, but I made it to my car before it was really dark. It was dusk. Still no pronghorns gallivanting around. Meh. I was surprised to see how little water I drank when I took my backpack off. I brought two big bottles of water, but I only drank less than half of one 1 liter bottle. I’ll admit that I’m really bad about not drinking enough water. I put the rocks that I collected in a safe spot and took off my sweaty shoes. This high peak had a lot of gorgeous rocks of all different colors. I took 2 red ones as a souvenir on the way back down. There was a huge one that I really wanted in my yard, but obviously I wasn’t gonna hike down with that beast.

On the drive to and from the mesa, I kept going over big cattle guards…4 to be exact. I started to get curious on what the exact purpose of a cattle guard was. I had to look it up. They were a bit annoying. The internet says that It prevents cattle and other livestock from escaping out of an enclosed area of land. OK that’s what I suspected. And now you know…

On the drive out, I made it down to the cute little Black Mesa B & B nearby just before dark. The house was bright red, had two gorgeous, humongous, white, fluffy sweet dogs, and at least three cats all right there greeting me. The cats were all being lovey dovey rolling around and rubbing on the dogs and each other. It was so cute to see all the different animals loving one another so much. I thought this is totally my home for the night. But when an older lady answered the door she said that her place and all of the other B & B’s in the area were booked up already because of the Star Party. Ugh! Viola told me that there were rooms still available on the hike, but that was hours beforehand. Dang. I said bye to the furry babies and then drove down down down to get back to the town of Kenton. I mean, that was the plan, but I guess I couldn’t remember which way I had to turn to get back to that town and I didn’t have GPS. So I had to do some guessing again. And I guessed wrong. I ended up in the the middle of nowhere in the prairies again.

Remember, Kenton the town of only 6, so it does not have many city lights out there in the dark plains. I looked at the list the museum guy gave me of other B&Bs in the area and wondered if they were really completely sold out, but I figured it was too late to call anyway. It was close to 9 in a town that, no doubt, wakes up at the crack of dawn, and I had zero cell service. Great. I started realizing that I was headed towards Boise City again instead of Kenton anyway. I figured that was a much better option for me unless I wanted to sleep in my car outside of some crumbled building. I really would have liked to stay much closer to the area since I was coming back the next day, so I should have called that B & B at the summit when I had service and booked it then. Oh well! I ended up just calling the same place that I stayed at the night before, the Longhorn Motel. I was soooo happy they had an opening because I don’t think I had any other nearby options. So, I happily booked there again with the same lady. When I got there and checked in, she was asking if I had a nice day. I told her about my hike and my high pointing goal. I was much more chatty than the night before when I was overly tired. She put me in room 102 which was fairly different looking than room 108 where I was the night before.

I laid in bed drifting off looking at some amazing comments from friends cheering me on. My friends often show me that they care more about me than my actual family. Thanks guys! I went to sleep happy that I successfully conquered all of my 5 high peaks that I had planned…

September 14th • Day 16:

I woke up around 6 AM and tried, but couldn’t go back to sleep for anything. Piss! However, I was very comfortable and didn’t want to move. My get up and go energy was starting to leave me. I expected to be at least a bit sore after doing a 10 mile day the day before, but I felt fine. I wasn’t sore at all when I woke up…just a little stiff but that’s it. I knew I should’ve stretched. All the the hiking I’d been doing prepared me for the long hike on Black Mesa. It fell into a perfect order.

I finally pulled myself up and out of the hotel room around 10:30 AM in search of breakfast. Not bad for wanting to be lazy for the first time in weeks. I found Bluebonnet Cafe’ which was not really too hard because GPS said that it was 0 minutes away. Score! I got a cheese omelette, hash browns and coffee. REALLY GOOD and cheap! All that and a cuppa coffee to go for only $10 total!

I asked the lady that was ringing me out about how exactly to get to the dinosaur quarry and tracks and what exactly was there to see because I knew I’d lose cell service again. She was not for sure on the directions, so she yelled over to some of the guests there that she clearly knew for help. The entire family at the table chimed in and said that the quarry is where they dug up a large leg bone of some dino and there was a spot in the plains somewhere where there are tracks in the ground still from an Allosaurus dinosaur. That sounded really cool to see! The plan was to GPS to the dinosaur quarry then try to find my way back to Black Mesa area to follow directions to the tripoint without GPS at that point. Ugh!

I had pretty good cell service in Boise city, but as soon as I started heading to Kenton again I had zero for a while on the dirt roads in the plains. That’s where I needed it the most! The directions I got from the cafe’ people were to go to Kenton and then go east for the tracks. That’s about as good of directions that you will get from me on this one. Sorry. I was attempting to head to the quarry first anyway by following my blue dot on the map on my phone and looking at a bad printed out map. My server also told me that there were more dinosaur tracks at Clayton lake in New Mexico. She said they were close, but yeah I was not going to see them on this trip. I was getting to my done point of traveling and didn’t want to add any more extras to what I had left to see on my list still.

So basically, I completely missed finding the quarry and gave up when I realized I was close to Black Mesa again. SO, I switched to looking for the tri-point that I knew was near that area. The cafe’ guests directions were to take the road that’s paved past the Black Mesa parking lot until it turns into a dirt road for about 7 miles and then you’ll see signs for the tri-point. Nope. False. None. No signs. Trust me…a sign would stand out among the endless dirt and grass. Also, the dirt roads fork often in many different directions, so ‘straight ahead’ in that situation were extremely bad directions especially to someone so directionaly challenged. I even flagged down three separate cowboys in trucks that were driving down the road, in Montana and Oklahoma, both to ask for help. Ultimately, I stumbled upon it on my own. They were no help. A little bit better signage, or like any signage for the tripoint would be amazing! Again, I followed the trusty blue dot on my phone map with no GPS to find it finally. “When you leave the paved road veer to the left and then you’ll see it.” Everyone just kept saying that, but it’s hard to stay straight when there’s 1 million forks in the dirt roads. Hindsight…I guess I didn’t look hard enough for the little monument off to the left. I don’t know how I missed it once I saw it! I think I was looking for some sort of signage, honestly. I finally got there around 12:30. I took some fun photos and was by myself the entire time I was I was there. Then close to 1, I was leaving the area in search of dinosaur tracks.

Don’t ask me how I finally found the dinosaur tracks because I don’t know myself. I just drove in circles and everything freakin’ looked the same! Again, there is literally no signs leading to or at the dinosaur tracks. You just have to know they’re there. I finally saw a vehicle stopped and a young couple getting out to look at something and I took a shot in the dark. Could they be there looking for the tracks too?! They were!! I followed them down to the spot because they seemed to know what they were doing. It was in a little ravine. I remembered the lady at the restaurant saying that the last time she was there the tracks were all under a pool of water and they might still be because of all the rain. She was right. She said that in order to experience them, you have to get in there and feel them with your feet like she did with her kids. The other couple and I all decided not to get in the murky water when we could kinda see them through the water well enough to satisfy our curiosity. It wasn’t a lake, but it was fairly deep and I was still annoyed that it took me over an hour to even find the little area. Beware, the road leading to and from the tracks is very rough. I was happy that I somehow did not destroy my Kia Soul driving on them. Those were the roughest roads of the trip by far! It was not so much of a road, but just deep crevasses. No one used to the city would ever think that was a road. Who would believe that’s where you go to see dinosaur tracks?! I mean, seriously…most of the roads in Alaska when I lived there were not even that bad! And why is no one trying to protect and preserve something so ancient and awesome!?

Neither I nor the couple spent much time at all at the tracks then I was off attempting to find the dinosaur quarry again before I sped out of the area for good. I was very much ready to start heading in the direction of home. By the time I was heading out of the area and I had decided to give up on finding it…I found it. I had probably driven by the place at least four different times in the broad daylight. I realized that I missed it every time because I was too busy admiring the view on the other side of the road. Every time I drove by I was looking at that same view until I finally turned my head and thought, “What the hell!? Really!?” How did I miss the large concrete replica of the dinosaur bone? Honestly, It didn’t stick out as much as you would think it would. The color blended in with the environment. The fake bone was supposedly the same size and shape as the one they actually found there. That was it. No tracks. Just a look-a-like bone and the small quarry where they found it. Not even the real bone! The real bone is on display somewhere else. Don’t ask me where, because I didn’t care enough to find out.

I’m surprised at how long it took me to find the tripoint, dinosaur tracks and quarry. Viola, a cafe’ full of people, 3 cowboys in 2 states and I finally found all the things after driving in circles with no GPS. I was exhausted. Have I mentioned that I hate The Great Plains? Black Mesa was easy to find because of the amount of signage and even on the trail it was very well marked with benches marking each mile on them. I really appreciated that. You would think that something as cool as the dinosaur tracks, quarry and the freakin’ tripoint would have some acknowledgment that you are in the right spot. Something… Any signs!! You just have to drive around looking for the little monument or bone. Literally no signs. That’s crazy to me. Also…side note…I peed at all three states again! Winning! That’s 6 states with 2 pees for those keeping count.

While I was driving all over the Oklahoma plains, I kept seeing a small black and white sign at a certain spot that read, “Easter Pageant”. What the hell is Easter Pageant and why does that get a sign when nothing else in that area does?! I was curious enough to look it up. I figured it had to be more important to them than the dinosaur and tri-point in order to be given a sign. I found a Facebook page right away for the Kenton Easter Pageant. It is a reenactment of the crucifixion that they do every year in that area. I tried to see how many years they have done it, but it was not mentioned. It looks like it has been going on for sometime. OK, OK….I guess Jesus deserves a sign…

I did not see Old Maids Head which was also in the area. It is a natural rock formation that looks like an old woman’s profile. According to the bad map I had, it was very close, but I did not see any signs nor did I care to look very hard for it. I looked up photos on the internet to see what it looked like when I was probably minutes from it. Haha! That was good enough for me. You’d think something that big would be easy to spot.

I was happy to finally leave that area. My drive from Oklahoma circling up the west side of Kansas was flat prairie land and cattle farms and it totally smelled like shit. I was finally starting to head towards home, but it would still be many days of doing other things before getting there. All the other plains in other states had whiffs of cow / bison shit, but Kansas was on a whole different level. Humongous farms with tons of cattle and the smell was so overpoweringly strong, I could barely breathe. There were more cows in one spot than I’d ever seen! It would go on for many miles each time I passed a ranch. Puke. Mark Kansas off of the list of places to look into moving too.

After nearly 4 and a half hours of driving away from Oklahoma, I passed the signs for Monument Rocks and Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park both of which were already on my list of things to see, but first I needed food and sleep. I stopped to get gas and did a much needed cleanup and organization of my home on wheels again. Then I stressed about whether I should camp or spend the money to be more comfortable at a hotel again. I decided on the motel. I had found only one campsite close, but ultimately wanted the comfort of the motel that was the closest place to stay at in relation to the next day’s plans. I was happy that I found someplace to stay at at all because it’s mostly nothing but prairies and farmland out there. I feel like I’m being redundant saying that, but it’s so true. It always either smelled like poop or like oil…or both. I saw a ton of oil drilling happening throughout the entire drive.

Annie Oakley motel was minutes away from my gas station stop for $79. When I went to check in, I asked the front desk guy about a good place to eat around there. He recommended Buffalo Bill’s Bar & Grill only one minute down the road. When I went to bring stuff into my room, I found that It was extremely clean, beautiful and worth the extra money. It was much nicer than I expected for the price. It had 2 large beds and a huge TV even though I hadn’t watched TV for over two weeks since I’d been traveling. I didn’t miss anything. I was starting to feel like I wanted to get home soon. I have reveled in being free to drive long distances and explore by myself, but I was ready to get back to doing normal person things sooner than later.

I got my stuff unpacked and went down the street to eat at Buffalo Bill’s Bar & Grill. They only had greasy foods and meat stuff, so fried food it was. Then later back in my room, I relaxed the rest of the night and messaged with friends about my adventures.

September 15th • Day 17 (Friday):

I woke up around 6:15 AM. I made the mistake of forcing myself to stay awake an hour and a half past the time my body wanted to fall sleep last night to finish watching a movie that I’d seen before, and I was regretting it in the morning. That was the first time I had turned a TV on on the entire trip, but I had gotten to the room early enough to chill for a moment before bed. I didn’t miss TV and I should have kept it off. I tried to go back to sleep in the morning, but I couldn’t. I was extremely comfortable again and I just wanted to lounge around and sleep on and off all day. The fact that I had to get up right away again, shower and pack my things back in my car again was starting to get very tedious.
I was out of the motel by 10:30. I don’t even know when the check out was. I stopped asking.

By 11am I was at the Monument Rocks and Chalk Pyramids. There was no place for food anywhere in between the motel and my first stop, but I was not starving. Yet. It was really cool to see these strange structures in the middle of flat prairies. It was in a cow pasture, of course. Haha!

I spent a little over 30 minutes exploring the Monument Rocks and Chalk Pyramids then drove 30 minutes down the road to Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park. I pulled in at noon to a small park with only 2 small trails. One was 1/4 of a mile and the other was 1 1/5 of a mile. I could see enough from the end of the parking lot to know that it was pretty much more of the same that I just saw and much less up close and personal. If I wanted to go hike the tails, then I had to put $5. into a box, but I was already not feeling it. I could see much of the trails from where I was standing and from what I heard from others, The Monument Rocks and Chalk Pyramids were way cooler. I spent about 20 minutes reading the signs about the formations and carving my name into the chalk rock that encouraged people to “Leave Your Mark Here…not out there.”

Red was here
but now she’s gone
She left this chalk
To float like swan
On the air
And out of sight
2 minutes after
She wrote in white

I was happy to find a place to eat when I got to an actual town of 4,000 people about 30 minutes away from Little Jerusalem….of course it was a bit longer for me because I had to stop and see a roadside sign. I stopped in Scott City and ate my late Mexican breakfast around 1:15 at the La Fiesta Restaurant, finally. A group of cowboys were eating lunch at a nearby table…cowboy hats, boots, jeans. I am definitely in the boonies of Kansas.

When I was eating, my research discovered that there are literally only RV parks around the area that I wanted to stop for the night. So I was actually strong armed into getting another motel room. I was starting to get spoiled staying at motels and blowing through lots of money. Fortunately enough for me Sunflower Inn was only $45 a night. That’s doable. And awww…Sunflower Inn. Cute name!

With a full belly and my room for the night booked, I headed to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a little over 3 hours away from the Mexican joint. There was not much to see on that long drive, but some things I noticed were:

• Denton, Kansas had a lot of Mexican restaurants for a town of 130 people!

• Quite a few people make houses in that area out of Quonset huts or Romney huts (steel half dome building)

• Kansas still smelled like shit.

• Still seeing a ton of oil rig drilling.

• There are a ton of Scooters Coffee drive-through places and Daylight Donuts. I’ve never heard of those businesses before, but they’re everywhere in the area.

Around 3:15 I started getting a little bit of drizzly rain. I made it to the wildlife refuge and took the Big Salt Marsh Wildlife Drive. The roads were a bit rough because of the rain, but I was able to still make it the 4.5 miles. You would never know by just driving on the prairie roads, that all these wetlands and salt marshes with shorebirds were back there. It’s so crazy that you can drive on the main County Road through the plains and everything looks so flat and uninviting. It looks like there’s nothing out there, but then you can go down a side dirt road for 7-10 miles and then you see some things that apparently get hidden by small hills on the plains or you just drive far enough away that you can’t see what’s back there from the main roads. I don’t know, it’s strange the little gems that you can find. It was surprisingly pretty and peaceful. There’s more out there in the prairies than I thought. It’s still not my favorite place, but I was seeing the most beautiful parts of it.

The scenic drive was very peaceful with all the little bird sounds. I was alone for the most part. I only saw a couple of other cars driving by on the rough, wet dirt roads. I took my time driving through the area and made many stops to see a ton of birds and a Painted Turtle. I had no clue that there were wetlands in the plains! It took me about an hour and a half to check out the area and then I was headed to my motel to relax.

Sunflower Inn in Hutchinson, Kansas was about an hour away from the wildlife drive. I was excited about it because of the name thinking it might be cute with sunflowers everywhere. Nope. All the other cheap motels except for one other, have been really clean and amazing looking. Then there was this place. I wasn’t impressed by the outside firstly, then I started getting really worried on the way to my room by the looks of everything leading up to it. When I opened the door, I discovered that it was not as terrible as I was dreading. There were some stains on the white sheets and it was a bit rough around the edges, but not terrible.

I’m just here to sleep…

September 16th • Day 18:

I went to bed early and I’m glad I did because I was awake by 5:15 in the morning. I struggled really hard to get a little bit more sleep but it wasn’t much. I just wasted time. I would’ve been better off sleeping in my car on the side of the road probably. God, I need a camper van, so I can park in quite secluded areas to sleep. What messed up my sleep you might ask? Well, a loud train, people talking outside late at night and again at 5am, a group of guys next door loud talking all night, multiple dogs barking, a TV left on all night somewhere close, the loud on-going insane coughing like someone was dying right next door, and the traffic. Holy Hell!

As soon as I noticed the date early in the morning, I remembered that my yoga class I was supposed to teach at a campsite was later that evening!!! AHHH! I went into total freak out mode. I taught at this place one other time with my ex, Chris. It’s where his brother camps all summer with his family. He DJ’s the nighttime party in a shelter and I teach my yoga class by the beach. The contacts were made for both events months and months prior so I was really worried about how he was going to respond. I emailed him immediately! There was no way that I could be home in time from where I was located still. When I first took the trip, I thought for sure I’d be home in time. I didn’t even think twice about it. I even picked out one of my yoga classes to teach already before I left. The guy was cool with me not being able to make it. There was not a lot of advertising done for my last yoga class there and it was just the owner, Chris and another lady that came to that one. He saved some money. He told me that him trying yoga classes there was an experiment to see how many would be interested, but without enough signage and advertising, it did not take off on the first attempt. With the campers focused on partying and not something healthy, I was not surprised. I have never had to cancel a class, but of all the classes to cancel…one where I’d have to see my recent ex and teach a class to 2-3 people was a good one to cancel.

I finally got in the shower around nine-ish and I had my car all packed up and ready to leave by 10. Hutchinson, Kansas…what a weird place.

I went to Scuttlebutt Coffee and got a blueberry bagel and cream cheese with an espresso drink. I wanted to get egg and cheese on a bagel, but when I ordered it, the lady told the person making it to “just pull off the bacon”. I’m glad I heard that. I told her right away to never mind that on second thought. That was not gonna work because then everything tastes like the bacon juices. I hate when places do that. Yuck! It looks like they just throw everything in the microwave also which is terrible for good health. Look into that one on your own. That’s a problem with traveling, for sure… not eating as healthy. I was eating very little processed carbs, very little processed sugars, no bad oils, no sodas, and no microwaved stuff before I started the trip. Obviously, exceptions had to be made while traveling just so I could eat something.

After eating, I drove the 9 minutes away to Strataca – Kansas Underground Salt Museum at 11:20, but had to wait until 11:40 for the 2 hour tour. Dang, that’s a long tour. I was not thinking it would be any longer than an hour stop, but I wanted to do it, so I stayed. They had a large waiting room, so I hung out there with the others gathering. Everyone that works there was walking around with hard hats on with lights and utility belts around their waists. I originally thought it was silly looking, but it worked with the theme and I might have not thought about the fact that it was a real salt mine and could actually be dangerous.

Once our group was called, they told us that we were being taken to a room to put on hard hats and that we had to sit in a theater and watch a short safety video. I started wondering what I signed up for. Side note: no one looks good in a hard hat. Haha!

After the safety video, we all piled into the freight elevator. So, this is not something anyone with claustrophobia would ever want to do! My dad would’ve freaked out about how close the elevator was with 16 people crammed in. On the descent, it also gets extremely dark. I asked the tour guide if anyone has ever freaked out and he said, “Oh yes!” They just calm them down and take them out immediately. To be fair, it was a bit spooky, but I loved it! You could not see even the tiniest glimmer of light coming in from anywhere! It was darker than I’d ever experienced darkness before. I felt like a little sightless mole going further and further down. The elevator operator told us that we were going 650 feet underground. That’s the equivalent of 2 Statue of Liberty’s. Clearly there is no internet down there.

Once we were deep in the depths of Kansas, we had a bit of a self-guided tour to read all about salt and the mine. They had a bunch of rusted cool old equipment that had been used and left down there to remain forever. Things had to be disassembled and reassembled down below and once it was down there, it remained…including all of their trash. There was some 50 year old trash down there. What a weird, but interesting thing to see.

After the self guided tour, we then lined up for a train ride at 1 pm where you go through a portion of the salt mine where virtually everything is the same as it was when it was left over 50 years ago. As soon as that short ride was over, we were then funneled out into another self-guided area. While we waited for the tram tour, we could see where they showed part of the important and valuable things that they have stored down there for protection.

Then, by 1:30 we were climbing into a tram to take the “Dark Tour”. Um, the entire experience is a dark tour. Nevertheless, that ride was a bit more comfortable, but both were fun! It was cold enough down there with the wind from the rides that I wish I would’ve brought my hoodie. The ride was a 30 minute tour that took you through the mines and talked about various challenges and solutions needed to keep the mines functional, yet safe. The extreme deep darkness of the mine was contrasted with intense light blasted on certain areas of interest. It was pretty cool.

Towards the end of the Dark Tour, we stopped in front of a large pile of salt rocks glittering under the harsh lights. We were told that we were allowed to get out and pick out one rock, if we wanted. I did. Once we were back in the vehicle, our tour guide told us some instructions on preserving it. We were told to cover the salt rock with a clear coat such as Rust-oleum, or clear nail polish. He also said to not put it on wood or leather or it will stain it. Wait, isn’t leather made with salt?

A couple of other interesting facts from the tours were:

• 96% salt is good for roads, but not to eat. 99-100% only is good to eat.

• In the old days, they had open flames on their foreheads before electric lights!! Whoa.

• Salt is a natural shock absorber, so you wouldn’t feel earthquakes down there.

• They use the mines to store tons of movie reels, memorabilia and a large variety of things that are deemed important enough to preserve. There is a ton more than what I took photos of. I just got some highlights.

I didn’t expect to spend over 2 1/2 hours there at this one stop but it was worth it. It’s truly a claustrophobic experience. I almost felt like I couldn’t breathe and that the air was stagnant and old, but I was very happy to have experienced it.

While we were waiting for others to gather to head back up in the freight elevator, I took the opportunity to chat with the 2 guys standing in front of it. I wanted to ask them if they thought the 3-hour round trip to go to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was worth it, in their opinion. The one guy chuckled and said, “It’s grass…It’s a flat hike through grass and that’s about it.” Hahaha! Best answer…ever! So, in his honest opinion, it wasn’t worth a 3 hour drive out of my way to go see it. I had already seen a bunch of tallgrass just in Quivira, as well as pretty much everywhere else on the trip. I agreed with him and told him that that’s kind of what I wanted to hear and that’s what I was leaning towards myself. Earlier when I called the National Preserve they said that they were having a Harvest Festival between 10 and 3pm. They also mentioned a 47-mile Flint Hills National Scenic Byway on Highway 177, but I wouldn’t have been there in time for the festival anyway, so I scrapped it. I’d seen enough grass. I was happy with the decision.

My eyes were very light sensitive after being down in that dark lair for 2 1/2 hours. It took me longer than I thought it would take to adjust. I struck out again, trying to find a campsite for the night while I was eating a personal pizza at the Pizza Ranch down the street. So I booked a cabin for $60 at Shady Grove Cabins which was very close to The World’s Largest Ball of Twine which was where I was going to end my day at.

On my way to my next stop of Coronado Heights Park, an hour away, I drove through a Minneapolis, Kansas which was very unlike the one in Minnesota. I like seeing cities in different states with the same name. It really messes with my mind when I’m driving sleepy on long road trips though.

When I got to the park, my eyes were still very light sensitive and watering pretty bad. My dad and I always wondered if blue eyed people are more sensitive to the light and dark shifts because he’s blue eyed as well. He might be more light sensitive than I am. He lives in his sunglasses, but he also lives in Florida.

Coronado Heights Park is a picnic spot with a scenic overlook view. Supposedly the view is similar to Sterling Castle in Scotland. I’ll have to take the website’s word on that one. I guess that’s why a “castle” was built up there. There is a fireplace in there and stone tables to eat inside. It was really beautiful, but also a bit creepy, since the only light is that from the windows. It makes a girl feel like Rapunzel, for sure. I was wishing I would have brought a picnic to eat inside since I was alone in there, but I even ran out of my apple stash a few days prior, so that sucked. I climbed up the steps to the top of the castle and felt like even more of a princess. More people were coming up there stairs while I was enjoying the view up there, so I asked for help taking a photo, but the photo sucked because the light was in the wrong spot of it. The sun seemed extremely bright and it was making my eyes water even more. Could my eyes still be affected that much for only being in the salt mine for 2 1/2 hours?? Maybe my eyes were more tired than I thought and the combination of the 2 was making me super sensitive. I had been awake since before dawn, but I didn’t feel that tired.

There were about 8 stone picnic tables on the edge of the hill with views in all directions. I went and looked at the view from each one of them. They have a stone bathroom and I really needed to pee, but as I was walking up to it, the smell about knocked me down. I could smell it from many feet away. Nope. I’d rather hold it and pee on the side of the road somewhere…

On the hour and 40 minute drive to my final adventure for the day, I kept seeing Mexican restaurants everywhere. Kansas sure loves their Mexican and I’m totally cool with that. I always know that, as a vegetarian, I for sure can find something to eat at a Mexican joint. But, in Kansas, some of these restaurants are literally across the street from each other. Literally right across the street from another Mexican place…in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, I was so excited to see a stupid roadside attraction that I guess I was speeding a bit. I also, knew that I didn’t have a ton of time before the sun would be setting. About six minutes before I got there, I drove by 2 black unmarked SUV’s parked like cops do so they could chat. I thought for a second that it could be cops, but I quickly dismissed that idea because they had nothing on their vehicles that lead me to come to that conclusion. Well, I should have went with my gut instincts because a minute later I was pulled over by a cute young ginger cop. He saw that I was from Ohio and asked the normal questions of why I was there, why was I traveling alone and where I was headed to. I told him that I was going to see the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and I could not contain my laughter as the words actually came out of my mouth. We both laughed. Whatever Ginger! This thing is in your little nothing town of 488 people! When he asked if I knew why he pulled me over, I said that I didn’t know. He then said that he saw me looking right at them as I drove by and I was like, well, yeah I didn’t know you all have unmarked vehicles here. Hahaha! He said I was doing only 9 miles over the speed limit and that he was going to let me go with a warning. After he told me to have fun and be safe, I continued on. It was literally right down the street.

I FINALLY SAW THE WORLD’S LARGEST BALL OF TWINE!!!! Bahahahaha! I’ve been wanting to see it for a long time! I’ve been to an absolute ridiculous crazy amount of Road Side world’s largest items, however, this is the one that’s like my piece de resistance! Hahahaha! I’m being totally serious, even if it sounds absolutely bat shit crazy. I was surprised to see that it was actually bigger than I thought it would be. I was surprised that it was outside! It was in a gazebo, but still…rain can blow sideways. I was surprised that it smelled amazing. I guess I never thought about how strong of a smell that much twine would emit, but it made sense. I also have a very sensitive nose, but there was so much damn twine there that you could smell it from a few inches away…easily. When I leaned up against the giant ball to take some photos, the smell was very strong, but lovely. I don’t know why that was such a cool thing to me, but it was clearly.

So there I am trying to set up to take a selfie after I sign the logbook when I look over and see the ginger cops SUV rolling down the road. I watch him pull into the gas station that shares a parking lot with the twine ball. I suddenly felt like Indiana Jones! But instead of me being threatened with a crushing death by boulder, I felt like I was being chased by the cop and the only way out was to dislodge the ball of twine and roll it on over him! Haha! No he was cool…besides I would never ruin such a cool roadside oddity. I had been waiting to see it for years!

So, I watched him get out of his truck and get gas. He noticed that I saw him, so I smiled and waved. He didn’t pump gas for very long because I’m assuming he didn’t really need it. He smiled back at me and for a second there, I thought he might come over and join all the twine fun. As much as I wanted to be alone to do the weird pose I was doing when he showed up, I didn’t wait for him to leave. I just turned back to what I was doing and “adjusted” my phone on my tripod until I heard him leaving. Did he really need gas or did he just want to check up on my story? Hmm…I wondered this as I took some more fun photos in front of the World’s Largest Ball of Friggin’ Twine!!! EEE! I left around 6:30 and I was happy that I still had some daylight.

My cabin for the night was only 6 minutes away. I was excited to get there and set-up my stuff I needed for my night’s stay quickly, so then I could find food and finally relax. However, the key that was supposed to be left for me under the mat was not there. So, I had to call up the office. She said that the door was unlocked and the key was left inside hanging by the sink, but if not, she would have someone bring me another one. As I was digging in my trunk to pull out the clothes that I would wear the next day, I heard someone leaving. A guy quickly and quietly left a key on the porch table and was already walking away when I noticed him. Umm…”Thanks!” . No response. Alrighty then. As I was bringing my stuff in, I noticed that all the cabins had different colored doors and window frames. They just happened to put me in the one with red door (my favorite and the name I go by most often) and I didn’t even ask for it! Yay for happy little coincidences!

Once I was all set-up, the sun was setting. I still wanted to see if I could find anything to eat in that tiny area. The ONE place in town that was still open that had some greasy sides I could eat…was not open on Saturdays for the unforeseen future according to the sign on the door. So my only other options were to drive 17 more minutes away, than the seven I already drove to get there, for Mexican or go get gas station “food”. I needed to get the gas anyway, desperately needed to clean the bugs off of my windshield again, and I was too tired to want to drive anymore than I absolutely had too. I reluctantly chose the latter although I was craving that hot Mexican food! It wasn’t the best dinner, but it filled me up. I relaxed the rest of the night by snacking and chatting on my phone to friends checking in with me. I was surprised that I didn’t fall asleep until sometime after 12:40 am.

I didn’t know this then… but this was to be my last comfortable sleep until home…

September 17th • Day 19:

I woke up after only five hours of sleep again around 6 AM. I was very cozy, so I tried to go back to sleep and I did for a bit here and there. It was enough. After my shower, I went to the larger office cabin where the owners clearly lived. I rang the doorbell and waited. The faceless lady that I spoke to on the phone the night before spoke on the doorbell intercom. I told her that I was checking out and wanted to return the key and pay finally since she did not take the payment when I booked it. I wanted to pay on the phone when I booked it, so that I could just leave quickly in the morning, but she said that I could just come and stay and pay later. Sigh…so, then Instead of coming to the door, like I imagined she would, she asked me to read off my debit card number through the intercom! I did as she asked, but I thought the entire interaction was very strange and unprofessional. She then told me to just leave the key in the cabin and leave the door unlocked. Wow…just wow.

So, I never saw her and I only saw the back of the man as he walked away from me when he dropped of the key. The interaction the night before with them not wanting to personalty hand a key to me and then the mornings weirdness left me thinking that they must be the most anti-social business owners ever or still paranoid of Covid. Sigh…either way…major eye roll. Not personable whatsoever. It’s a shame too, because the cabins were very cute, colorful and quiet! They could all stand some new paint and a few updates, but adorable nevertheless. There were 8 of them and I stayed in number 8 at the end of the line. I took photos of all of the outsides of them, but I would have loved to see how each of them looked inside. The one I stayed at, with the red door, was decorated like a train depot.

Once I left Shady Grove Cabins, I headed 30 minutes away to the town of Lebanon, Kansas. The cabins were perfectly placed close to the Ball of Twine and The Geographical Center of the Contiguous United States and also…pretty much the only place to stay near the twine ball. When I got to Lebanon around 11:15 am, there was a sign that mentioned a welcome center and an old jail. I thought the old jail sounded awesome to check out, so I followed the signs to that for a quick detour. I played around in the ancient looking holding cell for a few minutes before moving on to find the center of the lower 48 about 15 minutes away.

The center of the nation is up on a hill and it’s a pretty drive. So, just to clarify and keep it all straight: Lebanon, Kansas is the center of the lower 48. The spot in the middle of the plains of Belle Fourche, South Dakota is the center of all 50 States. The monument in Belle Fourche marks the actual town closest to the center of all 50 states. Rugby, North Dakota is the center of the entire North America. Got it? It’s still hard for me to remember.

Upon my arrival, there were a group of people dressed nice standing around chatting and walking to their cars. I had no clue what was going on until I noticed an adorable tiny chapel near them. My first thought was that this has to be the tiniest church ever, but then I remembered seeing another church in my travels that made that claim. Our Lady of the pines in Eglon, West Virginia does not claim to be the smallest in the world, but they do claim to be the smallest in the lower 48. However, even its claims to be the smallest in the 48 might have been true when it was first built, but since then Christ’s Chapel in Townsend, Georga has taken the title of being the smallest church in America. Then just for fun I looked up where the smallest church in the world was located. It is Cross Island Chapel. It is in a pond on a dock only accessible by boat in Oneida, New York.

So, don’t believe the signs that Our Lady of the Pines, is the smallest church in the lower 48 if you end up in that area of West Virginia. However, the Smallest Mailing Office is right behind the tiny chapel. Both are very cute and worth the visit if you are in the area. My friends and I stopped to see both when we were hiking the highest peaks of Maryland (very close by), Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. If you want to check out my trip there, click here.

Back to this trip…I spent a little bit more than a half hour checking out the mini chapel, reading the information about the area and taking photos of the monument. I probably would have left sooner, but an older guy showed up and started chatting my face off. I was happy to be up on the hill alone after the church congregation left seconds after I got there. A man, woman and little girl came and checked out the place too, but very quickly. But Larry, the name of the older man, was looking to talk and I was just not in the mood and wanted to continue on. If he would have caught me at the beginning of the trip, it might have been a different story. He told me about his Podcast called, To Hatch a Pod, so for those interested in checking that out…

Less than 30 minutes after leaving the center I ran into the Larry guy down the highway at the Nebraska sign. He pulled off the road behind me because he wanted to take a photo too. So, we took photos of each other in front of the sign and he tried chatting me up again. I just wanted a quick photo, so I stopped the conversation nicely and we parted ways again. In the photo he took of me, I’m holding a bouquet of dying sunflowers and it hilariously looks a bit like I had a redneck wedding in front of the sign. #goals.

Barely 4 minutes down the road, I saw him AGAIN at a historical marker. Are you serious? Part of me thought he was following me at this point, but I also considered that he might have just been wanting to check out the same things and take the same photos. To be nice, I gave him my photo business card so he could follow my travel blog. Thankfully there were no more Larry spottings after that. I was just so ready to just see what I wanted to see and move on quickly when he met me. I was officially ready to be home and I was completely done being social and lollygagging along. I had hit my traveling limit. 3 weeks of non-stop go, go, go doing everything myself is apparently it for me. Good to know.

When I stopped 10 minutes down the road to take a photo of Red Cloud, Nebraska, I looked to see if I would see Larry again. I did not. I thought Red Cloud was such a pretty name of a city and had to stop! Then 30 minutes away I came to Blue Hill, Nebraska and I loved that too. Hahaha! I swear I was in a hurry to get home, but I also kept wanting to stop and see everything still.

Random fun fact: So it takes a tiny bit over 4 hours to go from the eastern side of Nebraska from south all the way to north. That is just driving time without stops. Disappointing fact: this entire trip lacked of smoothie joints, but all the barbecue places were intact. I just wanted a damn smoothie! Anyway, I was driving to the tippy top of Nebraska instead of going diagonal towards my home in Ohio because I had one more stop that I had to make before the long push home. There was the additional option of seeing the Corn Palace in southeast South Dakota as well. It was an add-on that 2 friends suggested, but I was not really feeling it. I was going to play it by ear and see if I felt like driving the nearly 2 hours one way to see it, but everything in me was already scrapping the idea.

So, what made me drive the the top of Nebraska? Monowi Tavern. Yep, a bar, but not just any bar. Monowi is is a town that used to be run by Elise and her husband Rudy, but when Rudy died in 2004, the town’s population was cut in half to just one. Elise Eiler. Nearby Gross, Nebraska has a population of 2, so when Rudy died, the town became the only incorporated town in the US with a population of one. Both were born and raised there. Elise works 6 days at week as the cook and bartender of the tavern and her husband used to run the library right next door. She also is the mayor, village board president and local historian.

Monowi is a pretty name that means, “flower” in an unidentified native language. It was named originally because of all the wildflowers which, no doubt, included pretty sunflowers. As soon as I pulled into the town, I took a photo of the sign and the bar was right there to the left. There were a couple of abandon buildings near the bar, both of which had kittens inside. One kitten each, at least that was all that was brave enough to come check me out. They came out of their individual homes to see me. They looked hungry, but the only thing I had that I wanted to part with was a bag of vinegar and salt chips. I had that bag since The Mercantile in Oklahoma. I didn’t really want to eat it, but I had it for emergencies. I poured the bag out for the one brave enough of the 2. He licked the salt off of the chips cautiously while wide-eyeing me the entire time. They were so adorable, but skittish. I only got a couple of tiny head pats in and them I let them be.

As I was walking up to the door I notice the sign above reads, “Monowi Tavern • Monowi, NE • Pop.1 • Est. June 24, 1971”. A few years before I was born. When I went inside Elise greeted me and started a conversation with me right away. I knew who she was immediately! She’s a very sweet and soft spoken lady. She spoke slowly and had such a calm demeanor about her. She is 91! I told her that I had chatted with her on Facebook a couple of years ago when I was first planning on making the trip, but it didn’t happen back then. I sat right at the bar and chatted with her while behind and to the left of me there was a table of 6. It started off as 5 guys and one lady when I first came in, but then a couple came in a joined them later on and more after that. They all appeared to be regulars from nearby towns.

When I told Elise about the hungry stray kitties I encountered living in the crumbling buildings nearby, she said that she knew about them and feeds them once a day in the morning. She said that when she feeds them, she never knows how many will be there. Anywhere between 2-10. I told her they are probably breeding and increasing in numbers and she said, “I’m sure they are”. That makes me sad. I see this turning into more of a problem than she can handle on her own and what happens when she can’t feed them anymore? She said that she has only been able to pet a couple on rare occasions and when they are eating only and sadly, some have been killed right there on the one road leading into and out of town.

Since, I hadn’t eaten anything but car snacks, I ordered some tater tots with rum on ice while I hung out with her. I would have loved to have eaten more, however her specialties seemed to be burgers and gizzards, so I was good with the tots only. I noticed when Elise was cooking for a guest, that the lady at the table popped up and rung out one of the guys sitting with her when he was ready to close out. It was very charming to see people helping her out when she gets busy. I was wondering how she handled it all by herself. Then I saw another older man walk in, grab his own beer and join the others. It seems like the honor system still works in small towns. You couldn’t do that in Akron whatsoever.

As I was still eating my tots and slowly sipping captain Morgan, I heard the round table of older locals getting loud talking politics. I looked around at all the signs and things on the walls. There were old Monowi town signs that showed the dwindling population. She told me about how the town was diminishing because no young people want to stay and do agriculture as a profession anymore. Sad. She said that they were a town of 100 at one point. Oooh! I was very happy to see that she appears to do a good amount of business still and that everyone seems to love and help her out when she needs it. I love that! She has a nice little life there.

Elise and I bonded over talking about cats a little bit longer and I bought one of her Monowi shirts before I said my goodbyes. When I was paying, I clasped her little frail hand and told her that she has a cute place there and that I was so happy to meet her finally. She wished me safe travels.

Once I was driving away, I realized that I had no plans for the night and it was already 6:45. So, it was time that I made a decision of whether or not I was going to camp and go to the Corn Palace the next day before heading home, just start heading home right then, OR camp for one more night and then head home. I pulled over and started looking for options for camping or motels nearby minutes from the tavern. As I was stopped, one of the guys that I think was at the bar drove by and stopped to ask if I was alright. I assured him that I was just stopped to look something up and that I was OK. So nice. I only found one campsite that was not booked and still open, Springfield State Recreation Area right on the border of South Dakota and Nebraska on the South Dakota side. It was 45 minutes away, but it was heading the direction I needed to go if I was skipping the Corn Palace…east. However, I ultimately found that It was the closest place I could find to stay to the Corn Palace as well, so either way I would stay there unless I was starting the long drive home right then and there. The palace was located straight up north from the campsite by an hour and 15 minutes. A 3 hour round trip for…a corn decorated “palace”. I decided against it.

I was very tired and struggling bad to make a decision. It was around the time I would be stopping normally for the night to relax anyway. Part of me really wanted to book the campsite, but I felt such a crazy eager pull to start heading home that I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep well even if I did choose to stay. When I was on the phone with the campsite lady, I had my card out and I almost booked it, but at the last minute, I changed my mind. I told her that I would call her right back if I decided to stay. It was only $15.90 which was a great price for a place with showers! She gave me her cell number and the office number to call when I made a decision. The moment I hung up the phone, I set my GPS for home. Nearly 15 hours ahead of me plus a time change. I decided to drive as far as I could and when I absolutely needed to stop, that I would crash at a rest area for a bit. Where I was at did not have any rest area on the county roads, but I hoped I’d start seeing them when I got to larger cities. Sigh…and I was off…

So apparently, all of the large cities in South Dakota are in the southeastern part. The University of South Dakota is there in Vermilion and Sioux City is the largest city in South Dakota and that’s down there as well. For hours after I left Monowi in the far northern part of Nebraska, I rimmed the South Dakota line until I crossed over into Iowa at Sioux City. From Vermilion, SD to Iowa was flat, however It was dark when I drove through. At some point, I realized I was on an actual large highway and not dirt and county roads anymore which meant more street and city lights. I would have liked to get a better view of what the area looked like in south eastern South Dakota, but the city lights helped. I was beyond tired and was struggling to focus, so I started asking Siri to find me a rest area, but none were nearby. I was still so remote. There were no rest stops even through Sioux City, SD, but there were enough lights that I could see the actual city or at least the portion that I drove through. It looked like any other big city.

Speaking of lights, Sioux City, South Dakota on the highway has a lot of those new annoying blue streetlights. I noticed them sporadically in other larger cities as well. I didn’t like seeing that, but it looks like they are implementing the blue streetlights first in the larger cities. It’s a shame because they have a negative effect on human health and the environment. One major impact it has is that it halts the bodie’s natural production of melatonin which regulates sleep patterns…not just in humans, but animals as well. Also, over time the LED blue lights could damage retinal cells and cause vision problems such as cataracts, macular degeneration, eye cancer and growths on the clear eye covering. It can damage your DNA, cause headaches, etc. Look into it. No biggie, right? I avoid them like the plague and you should too. Better yet, tell your city that you don’t want them in your town! No one cares about our health anymore, just about money. Fun fact: Did you know Sioux City is broken up over 2 states? North Sioux city is in Southern South Dakota and South Sioux City is in Iowa.

I drove the state line of southeast South Dakota for a while until I was out of South Dakota sadly for good. Then I continued driving along the Nebraska / Iowa state line heading south until I started to head east and continued heading east. About 20 minutes after crossing over into Iowa, I finally found a rest area. Apparently South Dakota has no rest areas! I was desperate to stop and at least rest my eyes for a moment. I was so tired that I thought I’d pass out immediately upon turning off the car, so I chose not to bother with setting up my hammock. I was exhausted enough that I thought I’d just grab all my blankets and pillows and get comfortable enough to get some sleep in the driver’s seat. It was almost 10:40 by the time I rested my head against the car window and eagerly closed my bloodshot eyes…

September 18th • Day 20:

I stayed at the rest stop in Iowa until sunrise. I could not get comfortable and I was cold. I turned on the heat a bit in hopes of getting some sleep once the heat was blasting, but the sun was bright in the sky and my mind was focused so much on getting home that I could not sleep. I unhappily went out in the cold to go to the bathroom and pushed myself back on the road shortly after 7 AM. I didn’t actually sleep. I think I only slept about an hour total measured up in minute increments. I was in a bad place with a couple days of sleep deprivation hitting me hard. In hindsight, I guess I should’ve set up my hammock instead of tossing and turning trying to get comfortable in the weirdest positions possible the entire night. I really, really thought I was tired enough to sleep in my front seat, but my mind was just laser focused on getting home to my kitty. I needed to be home. I was daydreaming about my bed.

But then sheer minutes down the road and I blew out my front, passenger side tire. Are you kidding me!? I barely got moving! My tire pressure light had been on previously and after I added air to it while on the road trip, it went off. However, it came back on within a day or so. I didn’t think my tire was about to blow up though! So, I pulled to the side of the highway and called roadside service again and waited. No sleep. Hadn’t eaten. No coffee. I waited 2 hours for a tow just like I did before. 2 more hours tacked on to the long drive home…

During that long 2 hour wait on the side of the highway, I tried to call and talk to my mom. I left voice messages. I left text messages. Nothing, so I vented to some friends that were there for me. I was resting my eyes when the tow dude found me. He was from Redneck Towing (haha!) and was very nice. This guy was clearly proud of where he lives because once my car was hooked up and we were heading to the shop, he started telling me the different movies that were filmed in the state. Apparently, Children of the Corn was filmed in the area he picked me up at and Jeepers creepers was filmed close by in Nebraska where I just came from. He went on to say that the entire movie Field of Dreams was shot in Iowa as well, but the location was Dubuque, IA which is in the far northeast part of Iowa almost in northern Illinois.

My tow guy told me that the place my insurance company wanted to send me too was a place that was the closest to where I was broken down at. The problem was, he knew the guys there and told me that he didn’t think they did tire work. We went there anyway because it was on the way to another place that he knew for sure did tires. He was right. How shitty would it have been to get dropped of at a place that does not do tires and left to wait another 2 hours for another tow down the street!? So he took me to the other place a few minutes away and said not to worry about calling my insurance company back and telling them the change of plans. He said that it was just a few minutes more and he was not worried about it. So nice of him and I needed that right about then! RC Tires is where I ended up getting my tired fixed. It took some time to get going on the road again, but as I waited in the lobby, I met a nice older man named Ron that could tell I was clearly having a rough day. I gave him my card to follow my blog and thanked him for his kindness.

My tire ended up costing $197 and some change. That was another unplanned expense like my battery change, but nevertheless, I was back on the road. A few minutes down the road, Ron texted me and wished me safe travels. He knew how much further I was from home and how I was barely holding it together already. That niceness gave me the boost of energy I absolutely needed to head back on the road. When I was driving across the entire state of Iowa, I was admiring how everything in my view was yellow at various times. Yellow sunflowers, yellow Goldenrod, yellow grasses and the trees were starting to turn yellow. Everything was yellow. So, I played the song, Yellow, by Coldplay. “Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you and everything you do. Yeah, they were all yellow…”

The wind crossing, Iowa was so stupidly strong that it became a fight to stay on the road. It was wearing me out mentally and physically. I had to keep struggling to keep my car on the road. It was super annoying and I still had no calories in me to burn. Driving all the way back home was hard enough on basically no sleep. The wind was just icing on the cake. In my delirious state, I started wishing that I was the Jeannie from the old TV show, I dream of Jeannie. I soooo badly wanted to just blink myself home urgently. I was done with my trip. It was a success. Now get me home…

Around 12:30, I stopped for about an hour to try to take a nap because my eyes wouldn’t stop closing on me and I got real tired of fighting the wind. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep my eyes open while driving, but once I stopped… my eyes were open and my mind was active. Torture. Pure torture. There was one small moment of bliss when I was super close to actually falling asleep and then all of a sudden something jerked me awake. My mind…no doubt. It was just hyper focused on getting me home. I ended up just resting my eyes and adding even more time to my already long drive home, but the stop was needed. I was unsafe. I could hardly force my eyes to stay open even long enough to find a rest area. I couldn’t focus.

I was able to drive a bit better once I let my eyes close for that hour, but I still needed caffeine! By 1:30 I still couldn’t find food, coffee, a smoothie, or anything I would consider edible to eat. I finally found a place called Bean and Beignets outside of Des Moines that had food as well so I stopped there. I got a spinach salad with walnuts and strawberries and it was amazing, but what was even more amazing was the espresso latte I got! God, I needed that caffeine! I needed that jolt like six hours ago. That made me very happy. The food was not heavy enough to make me go into a food coma afterwards, yet it was the healthy boost I needed.

I was trying to save time by doing all the things I needed to do in one stop: fill up my tank, pee, add a tampon (yeah…that started too!), get food, get coffee and clean all the bugs off of my window all at the same time. However, the need for a pee stop was necessary before anything else happened, so I reluctantly stopped at a rest stop. I still very much needed gas though so that was the next stop down the highway even though there was nothing around to eat. Also, I forgot to clean off the bugs when I got gas finally because…tired. So that was the most inefficient execution ever, but eventually I got everything I needed done except for the bug guts still smeared on my window. I just saved that for the next fill up even though it really needed cleaned right away. I was not about to stop again until it was absolutely imperative. I was moving very slowly. Much like I had the entire trip, but this was different. I was not enjoying an adventure at a leisurely pace and taking it all in, I was half alive and on autopilot. And at some point I knew I was going to lose an hour. So that really sucked. I was miserable. I thought that I might have to stop and rest again once it got dark. If that need arose, I would defiantly set up my hammock and do it right, but only if I couldn’t go on anymore.

On a happy note…Fly-pocalypse was over!!!! I had at least 2 flies in my car at all times on the trip until about mid-Iowa. I don’t know when exactly they left, but I was so happy when I realized that I was not needing to swat constantly. No more feeling them tickling my arms or face while trying to focus on driving. That was everything.

When I started getting back into more civilization and less rugged Cowboys plains, I became painfully aware of how dirty my car was. My front bumper, grill and windshield were completely covered with wings, guts, and blood of some very large creatures. Dried mud was splattered from the front to the sides and the rest was under a thick layer of dust. It was much more acceptable and common place where I was, and I was still scrubbing the entire front off with every gas fill up. That’s apparently just how life is there. But once I started driving closer to Chicago, I got a little bit embarrassed about the look of my car, but honestly I was too tired to really care.

I was happy to be almost out of Iowa, finally. I passed Iowa 80 – The World‘s Largest Truckstop close to 3 hours outside of Chicago, but the traffic was already horrible big city traffic. Ugh…I’m not in Kansas anymore. It was pretty huge and I’ve driven by it before on other trips, but no, I have never stopped and checked it out. I didn’t care. My only focus was home.

I’d like to say the rest of my trip was uneventful and safe, but I cannot. Unfortunately, I ran into more problems. As if the no sleep, a popped tire, cramps, and still not being able to get a hold of my parents was not enough to deal with on an epic drive home alone…oh no…the best was yet to come! Somewhere between The World’s Largest Truckstop and the Chicago area, I ran into such a scary situation that I didn’t even write any notes on it like I typically do. I just focused on driving the rest of the way home without jotting down voice -to-text notes of things I wanted to remember to include in my blog later. Nothing. I was done. So, I am writing this from memory now…

There I am barely holding it together and hyper focused on getting home safe, when I started to notice that I was on the road alone with nothing but a bunch of truckers. Being a Monday night after 10 will do that. I was happy that I didn’t have to deal with any traffic because I was struggling to stay alert and I had already been driving for many, many hours. I was still sipping on my large frozen coffee drink, so that was keeping me going on fake energy. What happened next gave me a bigger jolt awake than the caffeine, however.

I was in the fast lane with my cruise control on just jamming to tunes and running on autopilot when I noticed a trucker coming up fast behind me. I was already going a bit over the speed limit, but not too much because the last thing I needed was a speeding ticket after the day I already had. And before anyone says that I should not have been hanging out in the fast lane no matter what speed I was doing…to that I say…the roads were very open then and there was no need to have the passing lane open for people to pass because the entire highway was open for that! Ahem…so this guy was coming up on me fast and I was watching him in my rear view. He flashed his lights at me to get out of his way. Now normally I would just move over, however this was not the first trucker that came up fast on to intimidate me and flashed his lights. When I stood my ground and did not move for the others, they went around me because, like I said, the highway was very open at this time. Just me and some truckers that were going faster than I was. I couldn’t understand why they had to be in that lane! I was there plugging along not messing with anyone and these assholes kept trying to make me move out of their way. The last time I checked, the truckers did not own the roads. I had just as much right to be in that lane as they did, and they had the choice of the other empty lanes to drive in.

This trucker did not back down. He did not go around and he got more irate because I was not moving for his highness. At this point I was pissed. I was not going to be intimidated by this guy. I kept waving him along and pointing to the very empty other lanes. Now you are thinking, he probably didn’t see your gestures, but I assure you he did. Because at that point he had escalated from flashing his large high beams at me at a rapid crazy angry pace to leaving them on permanently. He lit up my entire cabin with his lights and he was driving dangerously close to me. I flipped my rear view mirror up, and moved the side mirror, so I was not blinded.

Then he started driving fast and stopping just short of ramming into the back of me. Then he started laying on his horn. All while still trying to blind me. I stayed. I kept going to exact same speed I was going on cruise control. It was a vendetta now! He was making a scene and other truckers passed seeing this go down. I was being completely harassed. This went on for many long miles until he kept escalating to the point that he started to go around me. He was swerving like a psychopathic madman! The thought that he might shoot me as he drove by crossed my mind, but there was nothing for me to do other than keep plugging along. As he started to go around me, I noticed that he was hazardously close then I realized that he was trying to push me off the highway!!!! I slowed down to force him go in front of me and he did, but not before smashing into the side of my car! Once he slid against me with his entire truck, he then laid on his gas to speed away as quickly as he could, so I could not retaliate! How did I keep my car on the road when a huge semi was trying to take me out at a high rate of speed in the dark when I’m beyond exhausted?! I do not know.

The moment he hit my vehicle, I was on the phone with 911 all while still trying to stay on the road. The lady on the phone ended up being ZERO help. So, as I’m telling her the situation on speaker, I’m speeding after the truck because I needed to get his license plate number. That’s all I wanted from him, so I could get his ass fired and off the damn roads! The 911 lady told me not to pursue him because only cops are allowed to pursue and I could cause an accident. I assured her that there was no one around me then and if I did not get his license number then there was no way they would ever get him and I needed to get him! Nevertheless, she kept telling me to pull over on the side of the road and call the cops. I said, “What good would it do for me to pull over and call the cops?! Tell them what exactly!? A very plain white semi sped off into the dark when that described a bunch of other semi’s that passed me on that same stretch of road?!” But she was so adamant that I needed to stop that the first time she told me to pull over, I started to slow down to do just that…until I realized the stupidity in that because then I’d be waiting on the side of the road for a cop to say, “Yeah, someone was acting like he owned the road and almost ran me off said road, but I know you have nothing to go on to find him because the dumbass 911 lady told me to pull over before I got something to go on!”

The trucker sped off so fast that all it took for me to lose him was the quick tap of my breaks instead of the gas when she first told me to pull over. That split second of listening to the 911 lady instead of going on my instincts costed me! Even after I told her she was crazy and she hung up on me (yes, I got hung up on by a 911 operator. BINGO!) and I slammed on the gas again, it was too late. He was gone. I was hoping some traffic would slow him enough that I could still catch up to him and memorize his plate number, but he was driving so erratically that I couldn’t read it even though I tried and he never got slowed down by traffic. Poof. Gone. I was pissed!!!!!!

So, I called 911 back. Hahaha! Of course I didn’t get the same lady, but the new lady got the cops called out and I did finally pull over. Again….I found myself sitting on the side of the damned highway instead of driving home. A young cop showed up fairly quickly and I had to tell the story again for the third time. He was in complete agreement with me that it they could do nothing with out his plate number since he had a very unmarked truck. No logo. Nothing. He was also extremely shocked that a 911 operator actually hung up on me! He asked me if I got her name Hahahaha! No, I missed getting her name when I was in a high speed pursuit of a small number on a truck driving like a freak into the night. He told me that he had other officers up ahead looking for a white truck driving erratically, but he was in agreement with me that there really was not much hope in getting him. DUH! He was saying that the truckers there are especially bad about speeding and thinking that they own the entire road. As we were talking more trucks wizzed by crazy fast and I’m like is that just allowed here?!!? All he could do is just shake his head. He understood my anger and frustration with the 911 lady ruining any chance I had of nailing him! He was a very nice guy and apologized profusely that there was nothing that he could do and that I was treated so unprofessionally by a 911 lady of all people. He said that he’s never heard of someone getting hung up on when they called 911. I laughed it off with him because what else could I do? I was deliriously loopy. He said that both the trucker and 911 operator should be fired, and yet…nothing. Nothing, but more wasted time when all I wanted was to be home in my bed hours ago. The epic drive home was not over yet…

I finally pulled into my driveway around 4am! I couldn’t wait to get out of the car! My kitty, Gingi was very happy to see me and was meowing excitedly and pawing at the door before I even opened it. He knows what my car sounds like, so he’s always waiting for me at the door when I come home from any trip. Poor baby was probably eagerly waiting to hear that sound for 20 days. I guess technically 21 since it was after midnight.

After I had a great night’s sleep, I let Gingi play outside since he was denied it when I was gone. Let me just say that he is not a good hunter and rarely catches anything, but he must have been so upset at me being gone so long that he stepped up his hunting game. When I let him back inside, he brought a squirrel with him! The poor thing was so scared. I grabbed it from him immediately and walked it around the corner to my wildlife rehabilitater, Fran Kitchen. The baby was fine and was released right back in my yard and Gingi got extra love. Was that his present to me for coming back home to him? Maybe he’s giving me a gift to keep me from leaving in the first place? Either way…I won’t be leaving him for some time because we will be busy moving to the country!

1,000,000 flies, 5,092 miles, 11 states, 10 more smooshed pennies added to my penny passport, 9 nights at campgrounds, (includes 3 nights at Red Trail Campground & 2 nights at Horse Thief Campground), 9 nights at hotels (Longhorn Motel was for 2 of the nights), 5 state high peaks, 2 – 911 calls, and one exhausted woman.

I will be doing Texas’s Highest Peak in the Fall of 2024. I’m moving, so no trips until Fall. Who’s coming with me?!