To-Do List #17 - Drive Across Country - Part Three

We woke up after a good nights sleep, got ready for another day of driving and headed out to our first stop.

The Precious Moments Chapel. That's right folks there are acres and acres of land in Missouri dedicated to the dead baby angels. If you are a precious moments collector - I am sorry, but to me, they creep me out. I mean - that one you always see, Timmy, that is the creators son when he was a child - his son died in his 30's... the whole place is covered with Timmy's -- it's like a shrine to his son... It was all just a little strange. The main building looks like It's a Small World threw up on it. We were too late for the Chapel tour - but the grounds alone were enough to send me over the edge. I bought a Timmy ornament to forever remember the Dead Baby Angel Chapel and LJ bought of all things - A SHOT GLASS that says Precious Moments Chapel -- too funny!

We continued on from there to Oklahoma... A little ways down the highway we got off at a little town called Catoosa, OK. Catoosa is on Historical Route 66 which was cool but a little in disrepair - lots and lots of potholes. We were looking for the Blue Whale Park, a must see on my list, and finally found it! It was great, a small pond on the side of Route 66 with a giant concrete blue whale in it, you can climb on him, there are diving boards and slides off his back and sides. There were picnic tables, so we stopped and ate lunch and enjoyed the cheesy view. It was something I have wanted to see for a while and I am so glad I got the chance.

After the Blue Whale we headed a few minutes down the road to Tulsa, OK where we were trying to see The Golden Driller - a tall "muffler man" style statue of an oil driller. About a block from him the Jeep showed check gauges and the oil pressure had shot down - which of course threw us into a panic, we pulled into the Target Parking Lot- she got oil while I stayed with the car - we called her Dad and my Brother - the basic consensus was that the car was just running a lot and the oil was hot... Not that big of a deal. That was a relief but an hour lost from our trip... So we headed over to the Golden Driller - but we had to skip the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial which I wanted to see. We had about 6 hours to Amarillo, TX and stopped once for dinner and gas outside OK city... We kept driving on to Texas - and got some road side signs of Welcome To Texas, Proud Home of George W Bush (blah!) and a few of us pretending to hitch hike for both of our Mom's benefits. But soon after crossing the Texas border we noticed that there is NOTHING here - no gas stations, nothing. We were running low on gas and needed a station. Finally, we saw a bright sign in the distance and finally could make out that it said GAS - no logo or anything - just GAS. So we got off at the exit which had nothing else there. Made our way to the station and got the willies right away.

Okay - to set the scene, and I am not exaggerating on any of this. There is a small building with 3 pumps, at one pump is a gas tanker, but painted camouflage, with no one in it. The other two pumps are empty. To the right there are two abandoned cars with smashed windshields. Underneath one car are two cats who were staring at us the whole time (the only living things there - we think!) the building had a worn hand carved wood Closed sign - the blinds were down in the windows - but one window had twinkly Christmas lights outlining it. So the setting is like something out of 'Joy Ride' or 'Jeepers Creepers' right? I mean - truly, it looked like a movie set. So I get out to pump the gas and LJ is with me, cell phone in hand. I put my card in, get the gas pump and look at the gas price. $2.25. When was the last time someone was actually at this station??? And why was there a gas tanker there? We ran back into the car and drove off quickly, all while the cats were watching us drive away. I am still freaked out by it. So we continue driving trying to find gas - and exit after exit there is truly, nothing. We finally see a Shell Station ahead, pull off - again, the building is closed, but we feel a little safer this time. Lana still has the cell phone in hand and I begin to pump. As I do so a car gets off the exit which only leads to the gas station, and slowly begins driving past the station - almost stopping and then speeds off. So again, we are freaked out. Then Lana notices a semi parked to the side of station which is unsettling because you know someone is there with it. We quickly get in the car after pumping the gas and drive away, but as we do so we notice another semi parked, hidden earlier by the side of the building with a single head light on. Again, just things that were unsettling. as we are trying to pull back on to the highway another call pulls off and instead of going to the station, speeds up and practically chases us back onto the highway. By this time were so freaked out that we just wanted to be in the safety of our double-locked hotel room.

We finally made it to Amarillo and slept with strange dreams.