7 am.  Up and getting on the road.  Long way to go today.    Gorgeous day here in Missouri.   Little cool but sun is shining bright.   

12:30.  Stopped at the big Indian again today.  The Woodshed truck stop in Big Cabin, Oklahoma.  

  
Greg and Precious love to stop there for the giant chicken legs.   I wouldn’t call them giant but they are bigger than regular. Precious eats a whole one.   Greg too.   Today Greg also had the meatballs on a stick.  4 meatballs, wrapped in bacon and covered in ketchup.  I can’t begin to describe how disgusting that sounds.   He really enjoyed them though.   

Precious after eating a whole giant chicken leg.  Haha

  
 
5 pm.  Stopped at the Cherokee truck stop in Calumet, Oklahoma.   They have a Cherokee museum out back, a live buffalo, hotel, campground and convenient store.  We have been there before.   They have a lot of different cheeses, preserves, salsas, pickled eggs, stuff like that.    I finally found Blue Blazes.  Any time someone says “where in blue blazes is that” you will finally know.  Haha.  Apparently it’s blueberry jam with jalapeños.  Sounds yummy.  

This is the look I get when I try to move Precious off her pillow.  Hahaha

We have stopped for the night at a neat rest area in McLean (yee haw) Texas.    

  
Inside they have several information tablets around a windmill.   I took pictures of them because I know Gregory is a lot like his dad and will want to read every…….single…….one.    

  
Outside they had these neat picnic shelters.   

  
Even the grills were in the shape of Texas. 

  
The outside side view.  

DG:  Neat place huh?  Like a mini museum.  I don’t think there are people in any other state as proud of their state as Texans are of Texas. It’s refreshing. 

Well, yesterday I promised you a story so here it is. Last night after walking Precious I headed back to the truck. The door was locked as usual so I took out my key, opened the door and as I set Precious on the floor of the cab I noticed that things appeared very different and I heard a voice say, “Hey”.  Immediately I knew I had not placed Precious in our truck, but another driver’s.  She barked a couple of times, would not come to me so I had to climb up and get her and amongst my sincerest apologies I could tell the guy was pretty mad. Well, how could this happen you ask. Easy. All the trucks look alike from the outside and, now this is the kicker, they are all keyed the same. That’s right. Every KLLM Freightliner uses the same key pattern. I can open any door, start any truck and everybody else with a key can do the same to my truck. What is the reasoning behind this you ask?  I have no idea. Other than it may save the company a lot of money having them all keyed the same, I can’t think of another reason. 

I felt terrible.  Not only had I surprisingly invaded his privacy, I probably scared the poor guy as well. Then Annie and I got to talking and our imaginations were working and scenarios began to come to mind, well what if there was a less than honest KLLM driver who preyed on other drivers at truck stops. You know, watching for the driver to go to the bathroom and then go over and rifle through his truck, maybe steal his CB or XM radio or any other valuable. And it just got worse from there to the point I started to worry about all the possibilities.  But I had to stop. It’s ridiculous.  I do think it’s a safety issue though and will probably suggest that they correct it. 

Going across the panhandle of Texas in the morning, across New Mexico and into Arizona. This will be some new country we haven’t seen. 

So much to learn about this country. And what a country it is. My prayer is that every American learn to properly appreciate what we have here. 

Well, that’s all for me folks. Seven miles shy of 600 today. Guess I’ll catch a few Zs before doing it all again tomorrow.  

Love to all and God bless. 

Annie – Last trip to the bathroom before turning in for the night.  I sat down, looked up and there was Hitler staring at me through the faux marble door.    Freaky!!  

Goodnight y’all! 

One more. This was by the highway in Oklahoma.  Looks like the circus is in town.