Back To Real Life

Here are some things I learned during our girls weekend away.

• We often make fun of western Kansas as being "no man's land" and "out in the middle of nowhere." I am here to tell you that the same statements are true for extreme northern Kansas as well. They even have gas pumps that still look like this.

• An entire day of shopping is still the best way to spend a day no matter how many hours you drove to get there, how much sleep you DIDN'T get the night before, or how much you buy or don't buy.


• When you ask the waitress at Olive Garden to embarrass your friend as much as possible for her birthday celebration, they do a really nice job of fulfilling the request. (I'm very sad I did not document that occasion with a picture.)


• The weekend gets even better when the man of the house you are visiting is willing to cook every meal.

• When you hear a clunking noise while driving down the highway, there is a good chance that means your tire is flat.


• When you discover the piece holding the jack into the car is rusted and can't be removed and you have to call 911 for help in Missouri, it will take roughly an hour for any form of help to arrive.


• If a nice man stops to help you (which he did) right before the police officer arrives, the said police officer will then stand there and do nothing while he watches the nice man change the tire.


• When the nice man and police officer tell you to drive 7 miles back the other way to Cameron, MO to have Wal-Mart put on a new tire, don't listen the them. The Wal-Mart in Cameron seems to have issues with their tire balancing machine working and will scowl at the thought of putting new tires on your car. They will tell you to drive 30 miles down the road on the donut tire to St. Joseph. Just go there, they have nice people there.

• 3 1/2 hours and $200 later, you will be merrily on your way back home.
• We definitely set a new record - Illinois to Kansas in roughly 15 hours. Home never looked so good!!