Back Roads – 39 Days, 10 States, 2 Kids
DAY ONE
“You assholes can all stay at home!” I remind the rest of the family a week or so before we set out on an unusual journey from MO to WA, using over a thousand miles of gravel and dirt roads along the way.
Over the long winter, I dreamed about, then planned this trip. In the process a great discovery was, inadvertently, made about keeping the family happy when we were on the trip itself; I had set their expectations incredibly low.
Expectations were so low that they complained, separately, about having to go, and then they all would complain together, and again separately, with their individual concerns. Except Jake, he really didn’t give a shit either way, so Alli would try to sway him in to complaining. Several times we told Alli she could stay home with some combination of relatives and friends to watch her.
Sure, they knew that eventually we would reach the coast, where they could touch the ocean, and that we would end up at our favorite ex neighbors in Washington (the state – I know, big surprise, but there is an entire state up in the corner that doesn’t have DC behind it.), but the weeks before arriving at their house could be a long boring struggle.
The first aid and CPR class that we took together ultimately emphasized the desolation and potential danger we would encounter.
A few weeks after summer break we were ready to set out. We took some back roads from home in southern IL to Lake of the Ozarks where we would spend the weekend before setting out. While parked by a creek to let the kids play for a while, we had a problem.
With no cell service and no one around, Jethro wouldn’t start.
That is what we named the Lexus, Jethro, so maybe she was mad about that. Anyway, the key turned, but didn’t feel like it was attached to anything. Luckily, one of the responses to a thread I posted on the Landcruiser forum was instructions on how to start it after the ignition linkage broke. I had printed it out and put the instructions with our tools and things. Good thing, because I would not have figured that out.
After stealing our own vehicle, we made it to the lake for the weekend, and fixed Jethro in the wonderfully humid 97 degree heat.
We decided to rent the lake house on Airbnb to help with the trip finances, so Sunday we had to do all kinds of last minute stuff to make sure our place was ready before we left. Instead of leaving between 1 and 2 we left at around 4:30.
Alli tried to sneak two huge stuffed animals into Jethro before we left. “We don’t have room for those, take them back inside!”
It ended up being lucky that she did because we didn’t lock the closet in the house where we put all of our personal things, and forgot the bag with all of our bathroom stuff (toothbrushes deodorant, etc.). We compromised, because of the save, and let her bring her horse named cowboy.
We headed towards Kansas on Highway 54 and sopping to eat dinner, on a Sunday, at a bar in Fort Scott KS, set the stage for a common theme on this trip – clearly we we are not from around here.
Driving down 54 while the sunset faded to darkness, we reached our first accommodations on the trip, a basement in a nice home outside of Wichita. A sigh of relief fell over us as we realized the pictures on Airbnb were accurate, and we would probably be able to get sleep here.
Sitting on the patio having a drink, Kari and I watch the neighborhood go to sleep. It is windy, that is how Kansas is I guess. It is interesting to imagine what it would be like to live in different places, and this was the first of 25 places we would be staying before heading back to our own house.
The kids are in their bed sleeping.
Tomorrow we continue west. It will be 96 degrees and windy.
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