Oklahoma!...where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...

Well, we've had quite the adventure in Oklahoma this weekend. As you probably know, we've been traveling a lot. This summer we were on the road for 7 weeks, flying from California to Texas to New Hampshire to North Carolina and probably a few more places I'm forgetting. Well, the last 3 times that we flew this summer, we experienced major problems...flight delays, cancellations, overnight stays in cities we weren't supposed to stay in. So, we had a trip to Dallas planned this weekend for a wedding. Wayne's good friend Tommy was getting married in Denton this weekend and Wayne was a groomsman. We decided to go as a family and then take a little vacation in San Antonio afterwards, just to unwind from the summer. We decided to drive this time and avoid all the hassles of airports and plane delays.
Our plan was to leave Thursday night around dinner, drive through the night and then rest on Friday before the rehearsal. Addie usually sleeps 12 or 13 hours a night, so it seemed like a great plan, and would have been too. We ended up leaving a little early, made a couple of stops for her to get out, and by 8:30 Thursday night were well on our way and ready for her to sleep the rest of the way to Dallas. I got to sleep from about 10:00 on until Wayne woke me up at 2:30 am to drive. We were making great time! I drove for a couple of hours and then started to get sleepy. We had gone through several small towns in Oklahoma and were just about to McAlester, a decent sized town, and I was going to have Wayne wake up and drive. Just as we came over a hill and saw the city, the airconditioner starts to feel warm and the car gets sluggish. I looked down and the temperature light was on, so I pulled over at the next exit, yelling at Wayne "Wake up, there's something wrong!" and before I can get around the corner onto the street, the car dies. Well, it is 4:30 in the morning, we are on the side of the road with no gas station in sight and our car won't do anything. At this point, I start crying (I'm a cryer) and Wayne calls AAA. A few people go by, one person stops and looks at the car for us and says "Oh, that looks really bad." Thanks, that makes me feel better. Addie is up now, so we get her out and stand on the side of the road. Wayne says at this point, "Maybe someone will drive by and hit it and total it so we won't have to pay for repairs." The tow truck comes in about 15 minutes and takes us to the next exit where there is a dealership and mechanic. It's now only 5:30 and the place doesn't open until 7:30, so it's 2 hours in Dennys for us.
Addie was having a great time, enjoyed her breakfast, made friends with the waitress, was just plain giddy. Well, at 7:30 we went back, they said they would have someone look at it right away, and let us sit in the waiting room. Addie, after a short nap, is still giddy and crawling all over the place. She's filthy from the floor, but we were too tired to care at that point. Two hours later, we were on our way to Dallas in a rental car with the promise that we would have our car Monday morning for a mere $1,000. Well, there goes San Antonio. We decided to just head back north and stay in Kansas City Monday and Tuesday, go to a Royals game, swim at the hotel and just relax.
The weekend was great, we had a great time at the wedding, got to see my sister, went to church and saw a lot of people, ate cheese fries at Snuffers.
Wayne said last night "It was such a good weekend, I don't even care that we have to pay $1,000 for the car." We stayed in a hotel about 1 hour south of where we had to pick up the car today and planned on taking it easy on the way up to KC. Well.....
Monday morning, about 8:00, Wayne calls the repair place to make sure the car is done. He tells them his name and says he is calling about the car. They pass him to someone else. He goes through it again. Again, someone new. "Yes, Denny, D-E-N-N-Y" I hear him say. He's getting a little frustrated. Finally on the 4th person, he gets the story. The car was finished, but when they took it to test drive it on Saturday, they totalled it! As soon as he hung up the phone and told me, we started laughing! What else could happen?!?
Well, to make an already long story shorter, we are now the proud owners of a minivan! They traded us our old high mileage car for a bigger car with fewer miles worth $1,200 more, plus we didn't have to pay for repairs to the old car! They didn't want to have to file insurance, we needed a car to get home, it worked out for everyone! They gave us a few choices of car we could pick from, and it was fun to go car shopping without having to spend any money! So we are now a minivan family.
We finally made it to KC tonight, we'll go to a Royals game tomorrow and get home Wednesday or Thursday. Hopefully the rest of the trip is uneventful!