Road Trip Day 4

Day 4: June 11 (I’ve decided to type this while we’re driving so I won’t forget anything. Sorry if it’s TMI. Just let me know!)

We left Oklahoma this morning with the threat of major thunderstorms heading towards I-44 from Tulsa to St. Louis (basically our whole trip today). Good thing J is driving.

As we were driving through Oklahoma, we weren’t really planning on stopping until Missouri. However, we saw this sign & I made J pull over…rather quickly.

He unintentionally started collecting mugs/paraphernalia and I have a terrible habit of collecting anything that is part of any set/collection/series.  =) My parents bought J a Hard Rock fbeer glass when they were in Europe and he decided that he wanted to switch from coffee mugs (which he uses as pen holders since he hates coffee) to the glasses.

So, when I saw the sign for the Hard Rock Casino & Hotel, I knew we had to stop at all the Hard Rocks we could on this trip. This was my first casino experience too. Stinkin’ hubs wouldn’t let me play even $1 on the slots. Guess he thinks I would get a bad habit. =) But look! Isn’t this mug worth the stop?

I know it’s a mug, but it’s a beer mug so I think J will use it more than he does his actual mugs. He thinks it would be perfect for ice cream floats. I guess we have needed a mug for that purpose for a while. It’s supposed to cost $11 but everything was 25% off so we got it for just under $9, tax & all!

About those storms, we saw this set of clouds just after we went through Vinita, OK.

Don’t they look dark? Yeah, that’s what we thought but did we hit any rain? Not until after the clouds were behind us. Crazy.

Also in Vinita, I got to see the McDonald’s bridge for the first time. Yes non-Oklahoman friends, a McDonald’s with a bridge over the highway.

When we got close to the Oklahoma/Missouri border, we went by the town of Miami (pronounced my-am-ah). 

This is where my freshman college roommate was from. Thanks to her, I know how to say the name of the town correctly without being laughed at in Oklahoma. She was a great potluck roommate. Ok, off the bunny trail.

Once we crossed the border into Missouri, I noticed the coolest thing ever.

Isn’t that so crazy?! They put the tenths of a mile on the bottom of EVERY mile marker, every .2 miles! How can they afford all those mile markers?

Ok off that bunny trail too.

We stopped at the Missouri Welcome Center for the obvious break. But it was such a cool, clean welcome center.

Besides taking pictures, we got umpteen amounts of brochures for St. Louis and Kansas City. So excited to find cool things to do besides just the ballparks & Triple D eateries (Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives for you Food Network virgins).

Random bunny trail ahead:

Today at 3pm I had a brilliant idea: License Plate Game! Why didn’t I think of this earlier?! So, I started snapping pictures of the plates we saw from different states. Of course, we were already in Missouri by this point. But besides Missouri we found Illinois, Indiana, New York, Alabama, and more. On 18-wheelers, we found Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa & Nebraska. Such a fun goal to have & it helps keep the driver awake & me interacting with him.

Our first view of the arch!!

We checked into our hotel and walked to St. Louis Union Station. It’s an old train station that has been turned into a mall. We ended up eating at Landry’s since it was 8 o’clock at night.

Still pretty though, right?

Tomorrow…the arch & the baseball game. Goodnight.