A bit of a whirlwind today...
[An aside]: Actually we passed through another windstorm yesterday as we crossed the wastelands of Eastern Colorado.
Thousands of scrub brush flew by in the windstorm
The wind was so wild I thought we'd fly off the road. At a gas station, we came across the Center for Severe Weather Research mobile command vehicles in the parking lot of a Holiday inn:
Built tough
Cool logo
Surreal moment
So today...leaving Kansas City a few hours late as Dayna was feeling ill, Dan's car broke down. Facing the prospect of being stranded for an indefinite period instead of visited our loved ones in Carbondale, IL (James Wood, one of Dan's college roomates) and in Indianapolis, IN (Donald and Sandy Rothbaum, Dayna's first cousins), I was pretty despondent.
Luckily my mom and dad were really supportive and pretty much laughed it off when we got stuck in the middle of the I-70 off ramp at the exit of the service station we had just sat at for four hours waiting for them to correct an overheating engine. Their initial attempt involving replacing the thermostat and flushing the radiator did not solve the problem. Apparently, the engine head is cracked. It could be up to a week before the car may be repaired.
Now I'm sharing a drink with my parents of diet Coke and Jack Daniels at the seedy Residency Inn & Suites motel off the Noland Avenue exit in Independence, Missouri. We are booked on the 4pm flight tomorrow back to Chapel Hill and just have to figure out how to get to the KC airport from this strange waystation on the American prairie (MANY THANKS OLIVIA!). Billy is going to come meet us tomorrow night and Alison has offered to get the car and drive it back to Asheville. I'll be back to Asheville on Wednesday and Dave (from Aruba and one of Dan and my first friends in Charlotte)and Stacy (my college classmate who lives in NYC) will be visiting on Thursday. It feels like things are going to be alright and I ready to be home after this painful, inevitable journey. Thank you all for your thoughts of consolation and love. It is keeping me going right down.
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