West Trip 2012: Day 30

Erick, Oklahoma to Tulsa, Oklahoma

288 miles, 6 hours

Wow…30 days! I can’t believe that we have been gone an entire month-it certainly does not feel like it has been that long. So many of our days have been jam packed from sunup to sundown that the time has flown by.

This morning we rose early-about 6:30 am-at the rest area. Last night was a little difficult to get to sleep, there was lots of truck noise. Dennis put earplugs in and didn’t hear a thing, so he slept pretty well. We got the car brake system turned on and pulled out. Bay and Leah have been so funny on this trip on the “travel days” as we call them. As soon as the RV engine was started, they climbed out of their bunks and curled up with their blankets on the couch, ready to go in “travel mode”. We don’t even half to tell them to get up-they are ready to get going. It is very cute to see them snuggled up like little bugs before the sun is even up, ready to move on to the next location.

We drove towards Oklahoma City, and then took about a 30 minute detour south to go to a BBQ place called “Rudy’s” for breakfast. Dennis had happened upon a Rudy’s when he was in Austin, TX on business, and when we realized there was one nearby, we decided it would be worth it to stop. They serve regular bbq for lunch and dinner, but for breakfast, they have build your own tacos-lots of choices, the regular egg, cheese, meats, and also bbq to go on your taco as well if you like. Then you cover it all with their own bbq sauce. We had a 30 minute wait for our food (they were very busy), but it was very good. We also got some bbq to go to have for lunch or dinner over the next couple of days.

After breakfast, we headed on to Tulsa, where two of our good friends from when we lived in Greenville, NC now live. We drove first to Russ’ house, and got the RV set up on his cul-de-sac. He works nights, so was still asleep when we arrived, but we dragged him out of bed eventually. We took some time to catch up, visit and have some coffee together. Then we headed over to our friends’ Chris and Jennifer’s house to have dinner with them and their two kids. We have not seen them since Eric was very little, and so it was great to catch up with them and their family. Their two kids, Mason and Abigail, are very close in age to Bay and Leah, and so they warmed up quickly to each other and had a great time playing together.

After dinner, Russ and some friends came over to take us to the Tulsa State Fair. By then it was almost 8:00, and we were tired, but decided we’d like to take the kids to do something a little fun since the past 2 days have been pretty boring! It was typical State Fair atmosphere, but we enjoyed walking around and looking at everything. We got funnel cakes, cotton candy, saw the horses and chickens, did the petting zoo, and walked through the commercial building. They had a really nice commercial building-we especially enjoyed the displays by the police, fire and resuce. The kids were able to get in the ambulance and the police cruiser. They also had a really great display of all of the cakes entered in the cake decorating section. Most of the cakes were super professional and many looked like stuff they make on those tv shows like “Ace of Cakes” and such.

We got back to Russ’ and are off to bed tonight rather late-about midnight, so it will be sleep in tomorrow morning!