Armadillos on the Toll Roads

Monday 5-30-11

The wind is still blowing and beating the tents down to the ground. Terry & Joyce's tent is pretty well flat on the ground. Ours had 2 stakes pulled from the ground and one of the tent poles had popped off of the pin that holds it. And the wind is still blowing. Wayne & Calleen and Terry & Joyce are going to go straight east on the highway and go to Arkansas while Doug & Patsi, Linda and I are going to take a tollroad northeast that we will turn onto about 125 miles east of the campground. We decide to stop for breakfast in 20 or 30 miles and Wayne is leading the way. We saw several trees along I-40 that were completely uprooted, we assume that the wind was the cause. We keep going by restaurants and finally we reach the toll road without ever stopping for breakfast. Doug and I turn off while the others keep going. We don't know if they ever did stop for breakfast. By now we are in the green area of Oklahoma which means that we start seeing armadillos. Lots and lots of armadillos, all of them are dead and on the side of the road. As far as I know there is no such thing as a live armadillo and there are also no dead ones in the road, only on the side. We finally stopped for gas and got a breakfast sandwich at the Subway shop at the gas station. The toll road is still going straight east but we are in rolling hills with lots of trees blocking us from the wind so it is easier riding. And so it goes, from one toll booth to another until we finally arrive at Missouri. We are on Highway 44 which goes right by the city of Joplin which just had a very bad tornado destroy much of the town. We see some damage along the highway and to highway signs but the damage to the town was not visible from the highway. The next major town is Springfield and then it is 60 more miles to our friends Tom & Vicki Mooney's house where we will spend a couple of days. In Springfield Doug's cruise control starts giving problems and then his speedometer starts acting up as well. This is a problem for him as he has a damaged right wrist and relies on his cruise control. Tomorrow we will have to see if we can get it fixed and I will have to see if someone can weld my trailer bracket. But at least we are out of the wind which has been replaced by a high pollen count which is not good if you have allergies. Linda and I have had to clean out our eyes with eye drops once already. Finally we arrive at Tom & Vicki's house. They have burgers and hot dogs ready to cook on the grill. Lots of stories are told, some of them may even be partially true. We enjoy our meal and sleep like logs