Day 11: Pancake Breakfast

What makes a husband extra incredible? When he makes you pancakes! Delicious blueberry & banana pancakes and coffee. It’s our 1st time making any real breakfasts foods. So far it’s just been microwave oatmeal or English muffins. This came out perfect.

We have been getting better and faster at pulling up camp. We hit the road around 10am today. We got in 2 solid hours of driving before lunch.

And it feels so much better driving on a real freeway with gas stations and food around every bend. That sounds bad I know. Fred and I have gone to several Jeep Jamborees (don’t laugh! They are awesome!) Jamborees are always sponsored by super small, rural towns that are each as special as Mayberry. And we always fall in love with each small town. The Jamborees have taught us how much these small American towns struggle to bring in commerce and visitors. And their young folks move away because there are not many jobs. These towns are drying up… But after this week of bumpy, one lane roads, no services, and bad Google directions, I’ve had my fill of quaint and rural. I’d rather be on the freeway. I-70 is just cozier to me.

I’m spoiled I guess and now that we are on the I-70, it’s so much smoother and faster, and comforting than the US-50. The risk of getting lost seems much smaller and Google Maps doesn’t divert us down deadend alleys. Niether one of us felt as drained at the end of the day.

The downside to a nicer road…tolls. It cost us $6 to use the freeway in Kansas. It would suck to be a big-rig driver in Kansas.

We had a smooth, enjoyable 2 hours on the road and then stopped for lunch in Topeka, Kansas, at Freddy’s Frozen Custard again. It was so good the first time so why not? Fred and I aren’t quite as adventurous with our food these days so when we find something that doesn’t give us bubble guts, we keep it on the short list.

Today there was a guy in there making balloon animals.

I was also excited today to see several of my favorite childhood road trip stops. I had my 1st sightings of Stuckey’s, Cracker Barrel, and Waffle House. We didn’t stop at them but I get a very warm wave of nostalgia every time I see one of these places. I spent many summers with my family stopping at them. Great memories.

And we realized that there must be great money in roadside porno shops. Seems like we pass one every 10miles!

It’s funny the games you just naturally start playing on road trips. Today we played “identify that roadkill.” There was possibly an armadillo and badger sightings.

And the spontaneous sing-alongs…

We made our way to Columbia, Missouri by 4pm. We decide to stop early and do some laundry. We have been putting it off, but today we both ran out of underwear so we had to buckle down and be adults. It wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Its been so long since I used a regular washing machine I didn’t know how to put the soap in. I had to ask, “So I just pour the soap on the clothes? Is it that simple?” It’s all “HE” these days and you pour it in the little hole. I just didn’t feel right.

After laundry we headed out for dinner. We chose Bob Evans. I had never been there before but It was great and they have amazing bread! Fred got banana bread with his meal and I got blueberry bread. And the total bill for both of us was $18. By California standards, that’s crazy low.

All and all, a great day … Pancakes and laundry 😋