Shawnee, OK

[llcoolvad]

Things I Thought Today:

p_j_cleary and I found ourselves muttering the unlikely phrase "Tennessee is the jewel of the entire mid-South" over and over.

Virginia is a vast wasteland of cows, trees, grass, horses, and not another fucking thing. You'd think that would be nice. Which it is, for about 50 miles. There are a lot of miles in Virginia.

Someone needs to tell Arkansas that all of it that's along Route 40 sucks. Because I'm pretty sure it doesn't know, and it probably should come from someone who cares. Also, what's with the obsession with porn, Arkansas? And must you put padlocks on your toilet paper dispensers in your rest areas? Padlocks?

Oklahoma really likes its casinos, possibly competing with Arkansas and its porn fixation in the Sinning Olympics. The Bible belt is fun!

We decided also that Patrick has agoraphobia and anxiety -- and I'm pretty sure I have ADHD, Asperger's, apnea, and asthma. We're hoping a new state will bring relief, or at least a new letter.

I'm in a somewhat damp Days Inn in Shawnee, and I'm so tired I can't upload pictures right now. More later!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

wow.... you guys are making GREAT time! You can probably spend a whole day in vegas and a whole day at the grand canyon! good for you!

Yeah, I love doing road trip entries.... too bad I never updated my road trip from Boston to LA. I waited too long and now I can't remember the details...

Well, maybe for my next road trip ;)

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

Have you been reading a medical dictionary, by any chance? Or was it some kind of traveller's game like "The Minister's Cat"*?

Oddly enough, between us my other half and I genuinely have anxiety disorder, Asperger's and asthma (two each). Which is probably enough to be going on with.

*talking of which, I take it the cats aren't with you?

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

*You would be completely correct there. Mom's taking care of them for the duration of the trip -- she claims they "miss me", which anyone who has ever had a cat knows is ridiculous. P and I were imagining having them in the back of the truck for the trip -- at every change in speed they'd be "mrow? mrow?" and by the end of the trip we'd leave them in the desert.

Re: our disorders. Long trips really bring out the best in all of us, don't they? P's losing his mind in wide open farm country ("how do they LIVE like this?") and I'm fidgiting and reading every sign we pass (sometimes twice) and apparently I sound like death when I snore -- sometimes I stop breathing, I guess, and P kept thinking I wouldn't start up again. It's fun! Getting two rooms the past couple nights has helped a little...

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains it, if not why the conditions all begin with A.

I rather like being in transit - probably because I am never the one doing the driving. And I have short legs, so I don't suffer from being cramped up. But I can understand everything getting a little fraught on such a long journey. (Harder to imagine being able to drive that far without, you know, falling off the edge of something...)

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Um, west Texas with agoraphobia? Uh oh. They don't even have cows, trees, grass or horses. Well, maybe grass. And the occasional oil well.

Perhaps you will be going through the Davis Mountains (foothills, really, to you folks who have actual mountains), which will give you a short break. Stop and take a hike. They have shade and everything.

There's also a huge swimming pool somewhere out there somewhere, I think in Balmorhea (pronounced Bal-more-RAY--no, it does not rhyme with diarhea).

Bring water. Please. Just in case. For you and the car.