The Adventure

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My weekend in Missouri had an interesting start... thought it might be fun to tell the story. I'll try to keep things positive, and short. ;)

I made it to Missouri, on my own, in a rental car, without GPS, and felt extremely independent!  See, I missed my flight out of Grand Forks, ND... they just pulled the jet bridge as I was checking in.  If a lot of things would have went differently, I would have made it on time.... like if I left when Ryan said I should, or if I didn't spend those extra 5 minutes looking for my Nook, or if I didn't stop in Winkler for a coffee, or if there wasn't a long line up at the border crossing, or if the speed limit wasn't 40 mph due to construction most of the trip to GF!... you get the point.  Needless to say, I learned my lesson.  I tend to be a late individual as it is, and this was like my punishment.

So, the attendant at the airport tells that the next flight out there is on Monday... uh oh.  So I rented a car, and began my journey solo.  My first stop was 40 miles out of Grand Forks on the shoulder of the interstate when I couldn't see anymore and thought that my car would get blown off the road in what must have been a tornado, or my windshield would break from the hail pelting the car. I may have thought that was the end of my life (for a split second) but after a short while, it cleared up... and the convoy of cars along side the interstate could continue their journeys. If nothing else, it felt like I had just had a great cardio workout.

I seemed to hit every storm on the way to Omaha, NE, which is where I booked a room to "sleep" for the next 6 hours before hitting the road again.  When it looked like the city would be hit by another bad storm around 6am, I just took off again, in efforts to leave before it arrived.  I quickly found out that the interstate to Kansas City is closed due to flooding, so I stopped at the nearest Burger King where some friendly coffee-drinking farmer folk would direct me to the best detour route.  (btw: I've never been to a Burger King at 6:30 am before, I didn't even know they were open at that hour! lol) So off I went again, and made it to Springfield "on time".  It was a 24 hour journey I will never forget.

Things I learned:

- don't be late.

- Ryan is smart, listen to him.

- Toyota Corolla's are remarkably good on fuel.

- In Canada, you can get away with driving 10 kms over the speed limit... miles are different, and you don't get away with going 10 miles over the speed limit.

- McDonald's has free wi-fi, which is great. Their coffee, however, is terrible.

- that I can travel long distances on my own!

- that keeping a positive attitude makes a world of difference in a stressful situation.

That wasn't exactly all positive, or short, but it's a good story to tell.  I knew that this weekend would be the last time in a long time that I would be able to make the trip out there to see my friends, so I'm so glad I made it after all.

The end.