I’m writing from Clinton, Oklahoma, where the caravan just arrived to a hot wind and 95° temps, after logging 6.5 hours of road time from Rolla, Missouri where we left at 7 AM in order to dodge a flood watch in Tulsa.
Hard to believe that just yesterday, the crone needed to bundle up in a cozy sweater in the 62° Richmond, Indiana morning …but it’s the honest truth!
There are a couple things that set this particular voyage apart from all the previous eight (!) cross-country road trips the OBC crew has taken since 2022.
Number one: we have never made the journey in the summertime.
Number two: this trip marks the end of our snowbirding era, because… (drumroll, please) the house in Massachusetts has been sold.
In fact, the closing took place on day three of this journey (i.e, yesterday) literally minutes before we crossed into Illinois and entered a new time zone, somewhere around 1:00 PM EST.
Naturally, I stopped for pie at Blue Springs Cafe, a roadside attraction of apparently some renown, to celebrate. The lemon meringue was good; the cherry was perfection. 💛❤️
After picking up pie we continued on and eventually made it to Rolla for the night, after being poured on hard enough to cleanse the car of dust and bugs completely, readying it for new beginnings.
Due to the flood watch in Tulsa, we left Rolla this morning at 7 AM, a couple hours earlier than we would have otherwise.
Despite the flood watch warning, it was smooth sailing all the way— an outcome made possible by studying the weather apps at our disposal during this wonderful new age of modern travel, and “threading the needle”, as I call it.
The only delay was a spot of traffic coming into Tulsa.
We made two pitstops and drove on to Clinton, OK where our pet friendly La Quinta hotel is full of little boys and their families, all here for some type of kids baseball event. I can hear them having fun in the pool down the hall. How cute is that?
On our cross country Odyssey from nearly coast to coast, Oklahoma marks the turning point from “back East” to “out West.” The crossing of the seam, in Rand McNally terms. Yay!
Tomorrow we head to beautiful New Mexico, land of enchantment…
See you there,
OBC 🌿🦉🌵
One Bold Crone 