Well...the time finally came - our family vacation that also involved a pig sale. In Oklahoma. Which we took pigs to. Let's get started. After loading up 2 kids, 4 pigs, and a ton of stuff, we were on our way!
We left our house Wednesday afternoon about 2 pm, and drove and drove and drove. Shortly after we got thru St. Louis, it started to rain. Not a hard driving rain, but a steady steady rain. Most other times I would have been glad for the rain, except the part that somewhere between St Louis and Sullivan, MO, I took over the driving. By this time, it was about 10 pm, and this was also the first time I drove this truck. We borrowed a friend's quad cab pickup with a topper so we wouldn't have to pull a trailer for the pigs and still fit everything in it. Anyway, here I am driving an unfamiliar truck, in the rain, at night, on unfamiliar roads. Roads which are not straight and flat, but roads that are hilly, curvy, and downright unnerving! I'm also the only one awake, so while I'm trying to stay on the road and not get run over by semis that seem to appear out of nowhere, I read billboards to keep myself occupied. Let me just tell you that Missouri is a pretty interesting place. This is what I saw:
* Just outside St. Louis, there are a couple of Indian teepes along the road. I tried to get Kenzie to look at them, until I realized it was a bar. A bar in a teepe.* Billboard for Bamboo Gardens - Chinesse, Seafood, Sushi Buffet. Drive thru. How can it be a buffet AND a Drive thru?
* A sign says "Last Missouri Welcome Center before State Line" - I was pretty sure I was in the middle of the state of Missouri - why is there a welcome center in the middle of the state? Wouldn't it make more sense to put it near a state line? Or at least just call it a Visitor's Center.
*Vacuum Cleaner Outlet Mall & Museum
*World's Largest Gift Shop - We're Famous for our Clean Restrooms!
*World's Largest Rocking Chair
Oh, and why we are on the topic of crazy road signs, here is one from Oklahoma:
* Hitchhikers may be escaped inmates (Don't you feel really safe now? This one was in Lawton, where we stayed. Also the home of Fort Sill, where they were shooting off artilery to impress some visiting members of the Singapore Military.)
There are no billboards in Oklahoma. It's pretty flat and all you see are cows, and the occasional oil pumper randomly placed in fields.
Overall, though, the trip went well. We sold the pigs, the girls had a blast - even Lillia was petting pigs by the end of the trip. She had a breakdown when we unloaded the pigs on Thursday Morning. Screamed her little heart out, but by Saturday, she was walking up to the pens, petting and talking to the pigs. Kenzie did a great job selling one of the pigs in the auction, and she looked adorable doing it too!
Love this pic of the girls walking thru the barn!
Lillia watching "nemo" - which actually means any movie. By this point (somewhere in Illinois on the way home), she was ready to get out of the car seat!!It was a long drive, but we all had a good time. Don't know if I'd do it again next year. We'll have to see!
1 comment:
Oh my word, I got such a kick out of your billboard stories! The last time we drove to Illinois, I saw a billboard for:
New, hot, free, managemen (possibly missing an essential letter?)
And we also saw a sign for "The World's Largest Covered Wagon."
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