St. Joseph MO

[mellicious]

Notes from the road:
-- Stuckey's is apparently not completely dead. On the way up we saw several "Stuckey's Express" places (Tennessee-ish, but I won't swear to which states exactly that was) but today we saw what was apparently a full-fledged Stuckey's in northwestern Missouri. We didn't stop to verify this, though.
-- There are actual bluffs in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
-- There is a chain of convenience stores - we mostly saw them around Des Moines - called Kum & Go, which utterly cracks me up. I can only think that they have been around long enough to pre-date porn culture - it just seems like one of those names you can't really get away with any more. I think it would have to have been grandfathered in, so to speak.
-- In Illinois there were Burma-Shave style signs in several places for several different things - many of them were for a pro-gun site called (I believe) gunssavelives-dot-com. (No way I'm linking to it directly.) Unfortunately I didn't think to write down any of the jingles.
-- We saw a big wind-farm apparently in the process of being built in central Iowa. I had seen a truck pass us earlier carrying one of the rotating arms for the things, and I was wondering what that huge white thing was, but I had no idea until I looked at the assembled one and noticed the resemblance. They are actually sort of creepy because they're so huge. I am sort of hoping we will see some that are actually functioning when we get into Kansas and Oklahoma tomorrow.
-- In the pantheon of chain restaurants commonly found along interstates, we have decided that Bob Evans is the star. And Cracker Barrel seems to be sliding further downhill. (I can't vouch for the rest of Bob Evans' menu, actually, but the crepes are stellar. So all I ever eat is the combo with sausage, eggs and a crepe. I have tried the crepes out in blueberry, strawberry and apple varieties and they are all good.)
-- Iowa was much prettier than I expected - I think I thought it would be flat. It's pretty because of the hills. Monotonous, but pretty.

Oh, also, we crossed the river into Omaha, mostly just so we could cross a state off our list (Rob has entered into this nonsense too, btw) and we saw Rosenblatt Stadium, where they have the College World Series. So we thought that was cool.

Tomorrow? KC, Topeka, then take the turnpike down towards Oklahoma. I believe our hotel reservations tomorrow are in Ardmore. And we may start buying some of those fun necessities from those lists we posted earlier (mosquito repellant, etc) before we get to Texas.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Northern Iowa is flat. The middle is hills, but up by the border, flaaaat flat flat flat. And they haven't planted as many windbreaks as one might hope, so if you're driving through it at dusk in a blizzard...well. Like you'd expect but worse.

[nonelvis]

We went to a full-fledged Stuckey's in western Pennsylvania several years ago on one of the long trips home from Louisiana. I have no idea if the restaurant still there.

They'll always be "Snuckey's" to me anyway because of Sam & Max Hit the Road.

[3-foot-6.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, the Guns Save Lives people. I used to drive by three of those damn things every day and think, "You know what DOESN'T save lives? Putting up five tiny signs in a row so that the driver is squinting at them over the course of 200 yards instead of looking at the damn road."

In case anyone here was dying to know what sort of feats of poetic prowess I'm talking about, the two I remember off the top of my head are:

Called 911
I'm on hold
Sure wish I had
That gun I sold

and

Young thugs
Won't dare attack
When a teacher
Might shoot back

It sounds like I'm making those up, but I am not that good.

[mantofev.livejournal.com]

Yay! Omaha and Council Bluffs. They had councils on the bluffs... hence... you get it. ;)