This probably would have been more timely had I done it closer to my trip. Here I am on Wednesday and just getting around to it. Oh well. It's like that sometimes when you're playing catch up at work while also trying to manage a flood situation at home
I really wish I could have had the luxury of riding passenger so I could have taken pictures of some of the strangest things I saw. But I was trying to make the best time possible so you'll just have to make do with my semi-vivid description of them instead
Like how I noticed as I was heading thru Missouri, Oklahoma and even part of Texas that there seems to be a thing with places selling pecans. Am I missing something? What's so great about pecans? I was almost tempted to turn off one one of those exits to see what the big deal was about. The only problem was that each one looked to be in the middle of nowhere. I don't care if it was light outside. I don't stop in those rinky dink towns unless it's an absolute emergency. I'm not trying to be the next "Dateline" story
It seemed like I was passing a casino about every 30 miles or so. But then again that was as I was driving thru Oklahoma. There must be a lot of Indian reservations on the route I took. Or maybe my iPhone GPS
had an ulterior motive
I still don't get the route that my GPS gave me. E says I should have just taken 35 the whole way down. The GPS never suggested anything close to it. Instead, I ended up having to go thru every po'dunk town in Oklahoma. I know next time to stay off that highway. That is if I ever decide to make that long drive again
They think they're slick with switching up the speed limits like they do as you prepare to enter some of those small towns. You can tell they were hoping people wouldn't catch the sudden drop too. That's why I lost track of how many times I saw 5-0 sitting right by the speed limit signs
I didn't even realize there was a toll booth until it was too late. It would have to happen the one time that I didn't have any bills and/or change on me. They really should step into the 21st century and accept credit cards. Or at the very least they could have had a sign warning you an exit in advance that you had one last chance to go to an ATM before you hit a "cash only" toll booth
However, the turnpike that was responsible for the toll booth was pretty nice. It was the only stretch of road the entire trip where I could drive 75 mph legally. I could have enjoyed it so much more if I was in a vehicle that wasn't giving me issues
There was a sign in Oklahoma that said "Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates". That was the most random sign I have ever seen. It had me looking for the prison that apparently had to be close by. I've never seen anything that crazy. If that doesn't give you justifiable cause to avoid picking up hitchhikers then I don't know what will
Another sign I saw was touting a McDonalds coming up at a nearby exit and it said "Free restrooms". Really? Now I've done a lot road tripping and I have yet to find ANY place that has pay restrooms. Do those places really exist?
Yet another sign said "Do not drive into smoke". It's pretty self-explanatory, but I still didn't quite understand it. So when I see smoke I'm supposed to stop right there on the highway? And what is going on in that area that has smoke so bad that they need to post a sign about it?
I was impressed with how I could still get 94.5 KSOUL out of Dallas as I was 100 miles outside the city
Nevertheless, the next time I go to Dallas will definitely via Southwest Airlines.
'Nuff said.
