We're almost home! Oklahoma's panhandle was cold waking up to, with cloud cover and wet streets...it must have rained overnight but I heard nothing. We drove to Liberal, KS, which is the "adopted" home of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (no mention was ever made in the book or movie to exactly *where* she lived other than in SW KS). Although Stan bought me a ruby slippers pin (so I can get out of Kansas and back home to my Emerald City), we didn't do other touristy things there, neither did we in Dodge City, other than take photos of the museum outside made to look like an old western town. Just as well we didn't--it took a long time to drive through KS and up to Lincoln, NE to get the best coffee in the world and a room for the night. I could've used that coffee 10 hours ago. I dozed practically all the way here (no, I was not driving). It's just that...a combination of no caffeine, ibuprofen, and Kansas landscape makes for a somniforous drive.

We stocked up on bags of beans at Panache the coffeehouse and got two big drinks to go. Mine was practically a meal by itself, so I only got a side salad at the Perkins by our hotel. Stan has this weird personality trait I refer to as "food swings". He has this thing against Iceberg lettuce, like serious antagonism toward it. Like, I envision his fantasies of him taking an ancient medieval Japanese sword and chopping airborne heads of iceberg like an angry John Belushi Samurai Chef as they fly past his head. I know it's not the healthiest green you can eat, but it's better for you than, say, a chicken and cheese quesadilla, which is what Stan ordered instead of some large chef's salad because they were out of Romaine lettuce. Whatever.

During dinner, I managed to put a large gash in my lip because my tooth slipped on a crouton. We felt it was a very Seinfeld moment. Elaine, Jerry, George and Kramer are sitting around discussing times when they've accidentally inflicted severe pain on themselves. The guys are describing really macho, painful activities, and Elaine says, "Well one time I was eating a big salad and my tooth slipped on a crouton and it put a huge gash in my lip. It was really painful. I couldn't drink orange juice for days." There's a moment of silence while the guys stare dumfounded at Elaine and make fun of her because that's just not as painful as ways they've hurt themselves. Suddenly, George's face puckers into a mangled expression, and wouldn't you know it, his tooth slipped on the T-bone of his steak and he put a huge gash in his lip. George can't talk properly now, his lip is in pain. He has a job interview scheduled for the next day, which he does go to, but his lip is swollen, it looks like he has an oral herpes, and he's speaking like Kramer on Novocaine. Naturally, George doesn't get the job and Elaine gets the last laugh...until she injures herself in a very macho way.

Tomorrow will be like any day in the fall coming back from a Colorado trip...except it will be spring. We'll stop at Harvey's in Iowa, not that we didn't get enough cactii in Arizona, but this is for the spring garden instead.

And I miss my dogs terribly.

Labels: Route-66-Part2, Vacation