Stop For Beer
October 18, 2024 – Day 8
Cracker Barrel, Fenton, MO — Cracker Barrel, Edmond, OK
It was just a long travel day today. We decided to try for 500 miles. We called 469 miles “close enough.” There are two reasons for this. First we want to see how hard it is (it was hard before the new suspension). Plus with the problems we had in Lafayette, we had a lot of lost ground to gain back to get back on “schedule.”
Cuba, MO
Families and dogs welcome!?
Susan insisted this be in the blog. They’re the #2 attraction in MO. (we’ll wait for you to get the joke)
Mark Twain National Forest, MO
More from Uranus.
When trying to crank out the miles you really can’t stop and spend 30 minutes to eat. So the passenger makes lunch and eats from the passenger seat. Later when there is a driver change the driver gets their turn.
We couldn’t find a Flying J. Paul googled around and found Jonesy’s in Lebanon, MO. It looked pretty good from sat view as well as street view. WOW! It was crowded when we got there. Jonesy looked a little stiff but did his best to greet us.
The lane were were in had a broken pump, so we had to wait, and wait. These jokers in the Penske rental truck were long done pumping gas. They changed shoes, put some trash in the back, went inside a couple times each at different times. After a good 15 minutes of this Paul went and asked them to move. They seemed surprised about the ask. (susan here: I think they’re woefully unobservant. How anyone could sit at the pump while people were jockeying for the remaining ones and they had a line behind them and feign ignorance? I don’t buy it. Not even for a second.)
They did move, just up to that row of parked cars positioned so it was very difficult to get out! Paul eventually got to pump gas at the slowest pump in the world, 2 gallons a minute. He did notice the trooper who stopped a potentially dangerous situation, a car had entered the highway on the OFF ramp! This gas stopped took about 45 minutes!
Oklahoma!
The sun catching the grass seed tops made the side of the road just glow. This is a prime example of what the eye can see but the camera can’t capture. Paul sees only the dead bugs on the windshield and the grass? Not so much.
We hate seeing broken down trucks. When we break down we just hang out. When they break down? They’re not getting paid.
Vinta, OK has a neat structure. There’s an overlook where we saw people standing and watching traffic whiz by.
Did we mention that Oklahoma doesn’t take EZ Pass?
Driver change in Tulsa OK (Big cities tend to have rest areas far away from them, so if a driver change is due, we just find a spot, using google sat view to find a big parking lot. This one happened to be the American Red Cross lot. We’ll forgive you if you can’t make it out because of the bugs. If it ain’t wind it’s bugs!
The Arkansas River is low! It was low last time we crossed. Maybe this is normal?
Sapulpa, OK. That building up on the bluff is Aleris International. They are a manufacturer of a number of different alloys.
We pulled into the Cracker Barrel around 6:30. This is a bad idea. The RV area was not flat and the rest of the lot was on the small side. There nowhere for us to park but next door was a Flying J. And we needed gas so we killed three birds with one stone: we got gas that we would have to do tomorrow, there was plenty of parking in their parking lot to hang out and wait. And, since we were waiting why not have dinner there, too?
Paul called the Cracker Barrel and Betty told him that things quiet down around 8pm. At 8, he drove over in the Jeep. There was plenty of space so he called to Susan on the radio. She came right over and parked and settled in for the night.
And yes, we’re ahead of John now.
Daily: 469 miles.
Total: 1,705 miles
Driving miles/Day: 341 miles/day
Overall miles/Day: 213 miles
mpg: 6.58