Ready for Take Off

     Our journey almost ended before it began.  When I arrived home from school yesterday, there were about ten different sized bags sitting by the front door.  I thought to myself, Oh gosh, I hope these aren’t all Zoe’s bags.  My sister is a very inefficient packer, which frustrates me to no end.  Of course, a big argument ensued.  The many family members standing around watching us only made my frustration worse.  We ended up spending an extra twenty minutes combining Zoe’s stuff.  (As a result, we forgot our unscented deodorant and soap, dang it!)  

     We eventually hit the road around 5:30, ignoring our parent’s continuing suggestions to cancel the trip.  Unfortunately, this was rush hour, which set us behind  about an hour.  As we sat in traffic I thought to myself (and possibly said aloud a few times), I cannot believe we are doing this.  Once out of traffic, we soon realized our dumb brother Austin passed along the car with only a ¼ tank of gas.  I stupidly thought that we would be able to make it all the way to the Travel Channel’s Truck Stop Missouri in Columbia, with only this small amount of fuel.  Of course, as soon as I realized this wouldn’t be possible, all of the gas stations disappeared.  (I should’ve listened to Zoe’s suggestion to stop while we could.)  As the gas gauge crept closer and closer to empty, my heart rate increased.  Zoe and I even made a plan that as long as we could get within a mile of a gas station, we could walk the rest of the way.  Luckily, we didn’t have to put this plan into place; we pulled into the Ωgas station just as the last bar of gas disappeared.

We celebrated our arrival at the gas station by loading up on plenty of snacks.  Although we avoided McDonalds, we still managed to make some unhealthy choices.  I had a 25 dollar gift card that we were determined to spend.  We bought M&M trail mix (really good, you should try it), chocolate covered pretzels, Pringles, licorice, ice cream, and soda.  Gross!  However, it did keep us energized for the next couple of hours.  

Our next pit stop was at a Wal-Mart just outside of Kansas City.  I guess we felt guilty about our gas-station indulgence because here we loaded up on fruits, veggies and a few other things we forgot.  The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, however we didn’t make it as far as planed.  Once darkness hit, the Sleep Monster got me, and we had to stop.  Zoe got to experience her first memorable motel stay.  Overall, she was pleasantly surprised by the accommodations at Super 8.  We were especially excited about the continental breakfast consisting of Ho-Hos, Ding-Dongs, and my personal favorite, Nutty Bars.  We left this morning around 6:30 for Sioux Falls, still on schedule despite our early stop.