A Day In The Life...: 200th Post - Road Trip to Missouri!!

200th Post – Road Trip to Missouri

So 2 weeks ago, my dad and I had lunch at Schlotszky’s on Thursday and he was telling me about a camper that he was interested in getting. He had been dreaming of getting one for years, but my mom has always been opposed to it. One night, he happened to show this camper to my mom and she said “ok”…and then he had the green light to get the camper!!

So then on Friday, August 27th I got into work and had an e-mail from my dad. The subject was “Are you up for an adventure?” In the e-mail, he invited me to take a road trip with him that weekend. He was able to get an amazing deal on a camper that someone was selling, who had only used it once. The only problem –

He lives in North Carolina.

He either wasn’t willing or able (or maybe both) to ship it or bring it to Colorado Springs, so he and my dad worked out a deal where they would both drive halfway (about 12 hours) and meet in St. Louis, Missouri. My mom couldn’t go because they had a house guest staying with them who was flying out at noon on Saturday and she was taking her to the airport, plus she had a dinner party on Saturday night. So my dad asked me to go! It took me all of 2 minutes to realize that I had no plans and I was going!!

Friday night I went over for dinner at their house, planning on staying over so that I could leave with him really early the next morning. We had a great dinner and then I convinced my dad that if we drove a few hours that night, then we wouldn’t have to spend the entire Saturday in the car, and we’d get to St. Louis earlier. He loved the idea, so we started out at 6:45 on Friday! We drove through the night and ended up at a hotel in Colby, Kansas. Boy – there was NOTHING out there. It was about 11:30 pm (10:30 Colorado time) but I was starving and we hadn’t eaten in about 6 hours, so we stopped at the McDonald’s next door for a late night snack.

We decided to get up at 5 am (4 am MT) to be on the road by 6, and then we were on our way again (after, of course, another stop at McDonald’s for breakfast). I’m not really into audio books, but thank goodness my dad had one with him, because it really helped the time fly by. It also was great to just talk with him and catch up on things, and tell funny stories and memories and between all that and the several stops for gas and bathroom breaks, we were in St. Louis before we knew it! Throw in another stop at McDonald’s for lunch, and I was starting to feel like the guy from the documentary “Supersize Me”.

The man’s name who was selling my dad the camper was Jeff, and he was really nice. We got to St. Louis around 4:15 (3:15 MT) and spent about 1 ½ to 2 hours getting the rundown of all the features and hooking it up to my dad’s car. Then after driving it around the parking lot to get used to it, we were ready to get back on the road. Seems kind of silly to drive 12 hours just to spend 2 hours in St. Louis, and then drive back, but it worked out so well driving a few hours Friday night, so we were ok with it. Plus, it was also equally silly to set up camp at 6 pm and then just sit around, waiting for the next morning to arrive.

After only about 2 hours of driving, my dad and I decided that we should probably start looking for a campground before we got to Kansas and there were practically none. Plus, we also wanted to set-up the camper and make sure it all worked, and we didn’t know how long that would take (since we’re both first-timers). So around 8, we finally got a campsite and I convinced my dad that we should probably eat something other than McDonald’s for dinner. The campground host recommended a 50’s Diner close-by, and since we didn’t want to fiddle with un-hooking and hooking the camper from the car (since we didn’t know what we’d do if we couldn’t figure it out!) we took it to dinner with us. But, it was a little rushed so that we could get back and settle in. Thank goodness for electric hook-ups and A/C in the camper – it was so humid and muggy that the A/C was awesome! After checking Facebook and watching an episode of Law and Order SVU on Netflix, we headed to bed.

We got up again at 4/5 and made our way back home and, for convenience, had McDonald’s for breakfast one last time. For those of you counting, that’s 4 times in 2 days we had McDonald’s. So it was a mutual decision to get Quizno’s for lunch that day, so we could actually say we had fresh veggies and whole wheat bread at least once, and to feel better about our food choices.
We finally arrived back in Colorado Springs around 5, had dinner with my mom, and then I had to rush home to finally take a shower!! Whew…

It was a great weekend, and it actually went by too fast. I love road trips!! I can’t wait for my next one! Here are some shots I took on the way back so that I could share:

Dad test driving the car with the camper...