June 19, 2007

June 19, 2007

We woke up this morning after a long night’s sleep, ready to get out of Tulsa. An early night last night and sleeping in this morning helped us stay wide awake as we moved the Winnebago for the first time in three days. The tires we fixed yesterday made us mobile for the short distance to the tire store. No more jumping between taxis and buses today.
As we wait at Wal-Mart for our parts to come in, we decide to shave some more heads. Micah and Ian had already done theirs. Micah’s is down almost to the skin. We call him Cue, short for cue ball because of his new look. Luke was first up today. The clipper was running off the Winnebago battery, and would sometimes die on us. The clipper guard kept falling off and making it difficult to cut hair at one uniform length. Luke now has a few divots in his head that look pretty funny. He wasn’t too happy about them though. After Luke was done it was Dan’s turn. Taking special care of the guard this time, Micah cut away at Dan’s hair. Struggling for power the clipper died about half way through. It was not a pretty hair cut. Buzzed in the front and full length in the back, but not quite like a mullet. There are pictures up on the site of it. After turning on the Bago to give it some extra juice, we finished buzzing Dan’s head. The tire parts came in and I didn’t have time for mine yet, but I was okay with that because my hair is much longer than Dan’s was and I didn’t want to get stuck half-way done like he was for a while. I’ll wait until we can plug in.
We sit in the air-conditioned waiting room sharing our stories with the other customers and the desk attendant. Everyone shares ideas from their teenage traveling days with us, telling us where to stop and places to avoid. The desk attendant tells us he’s going to go make a call to his wife, telling her that he won’t be home for a while because he’s going to join us on the road. Everyone we talk to tells us they are jealous.
The tire mechanic removes our wheels and checks our tubes. He tells us that only some of them are damaged, and the other ones should hold air. Confused as to how air is seeping out of our tires, we decide not to fix what the mechanic says isn’t broken. One tire, our spare, is shot completely. The mechanic refuses to work on it because it is actually dangerous to tamper with. We decide to keep it anyway, but if we lose another wheel, we’re screwed.
We get back on the road, ready to leave Tulsa for good. Everything is working, and the weather looks decent up ahead. We feel good about passing the bus terminal for the last time, without needing to stop at it. Our goal destination today is a state park south-west of Oklahoma City. They have showers, power hook-ups, and everything else we’ve been missing out on in Wal-Mart parking lots.
A couple hours away from our destination we receive a call from the Bus Guys. The other group that started their road trip a couple days ago and are already passing us. They called to tell us that when they passed through Oklahoma City that there were tornado warnings and heavy storms coming in. Staying south of the big city we hoped to steer clear of all bad weather, because so far on the trip, bad weather means something bad is going to happen to the Winnebago and her crew.
Driving through the dark, we start to second guess where the park actually is. The sky is pitch black with storm clouds. Unable to navigate using the sky, we use the city glow from Oklahoma City as our North Star substitute. Lighting flashes in a horseshoe around us, lighting up the outline of the giant storm clouds. The storm is still too far off to hear any thunder, but it seems like we are driving straight into it.
The five of us sit in the front, listening to the same old play-list on Micah’s ipod. Everyone is staring out a different window, watching the giant lightning bolts light up the sky around us. Occasionally one will light up the road in front of the Winnebago, revealing hidden turns in the road ahead. The mood is a tired one; nobody says much of anything. Mike, you chose a few good days to miss.
Driving nearer to the eye of the storm, the wind picked up. With the lightning came thunder now, and the rain began to pour. We attached a small fan to the dash to use as a window defogger. It worked, but only on the one window it was attached to. Visibility was low and it was obvious now that getting to the state park was not high on our list of priorities. Stopping for directions, the locals told us they had never heard of our park. They directed us to a different park, but in the rain it was impossible to find.
Missing the last three cities we planned to stop in, we were willing to park anywhere. We found a gas station out in the middle of nowhere, and we pulled around back. Outside, it’s raining sideways. The wind flings the door open as Luke turns the knob to go outside. Planning on taking real showers at the state park, we were a little disappointed with a gas station for the night. Plan B was to take showers out in the rain, which worked for a little bit. The wind was so strong and the rain so heavy, that it almost hurt to stand outside in a bathing suit. We quick lather up some soap, as we all dance around to keep warm. We hear a nearby crack of thunder. Dan claims he saw the lightning bolt hit a power line just across the street. He saw it spark and fall. All getting a little more nervous about the weather, we speed the showering process up. Then the brightest flash of lightning right in front of us, strikes a light pole less than thirty-five yards away, followed immediately with a tremor of thunder that you could feel. Terrified of how close to us it was, we rinsed off, and ran back inside where Helen was leaking in through all of her windows. The Bago was a mess, but we were clean. We all changed, ate cookies, and went to bed. An exciting ending to a long day on the road.

Winnebago guys, from the desk of Aaron Tubergen
Just west of Lawton, Oklahoma
1301 miles from home