Continuing On . . .
Got on the road around 9:00 today–later than I would have liked. We’re driving from Louisville, Kentucky to Lincoln, Nebraska,. All told, we’re rolling about 700 miles. Lesson learned: get on the road earlier. I’m at the wheel first, and we’re rocking out to the Road Trip Radio channel on Sirius XM. Damn good music . . . highly recommend it! Looks like we’re traveling through several states today: Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.
*insert record scratch here*
I have a serious question for the entire state of Missouri. Do you have any functioning public restrooms?
Our second pit stop was just north of Kansas City around 4:00 in the afternoon. Admittedly, the area where we stopped seemed a bit dodgy: lots of bedraggled, sweat soaked, and unnaturally thin homeless folks camping near the gas station. The boys and I went in, toured the small station interior. “Uh oh,” I immediately worried.
“Where’s your restroom, please?” Evan asked.
“It’s out of order,” replied an exasperated station attendant.
Cool.
Ugh, fine.
Adam finishes pumping gas then takes over the driving. We load in, head to a less dodgy area, and stop again. Adam waits while I take the boys in, and whaadaya know? The restroom is out of order.
Seriously? Ugh, fine.
When I gave Adam the restroom’s status, he grumbled, “This is my first time in Kansas City, and I already hate it.”
Once again, we load in and head up the highway, this time a little farther. Adam selects a highway exit where I very clearly see a sign indicating the nearest station is four miles out of our way. I’m thinking to myself, “Why is he going this way,” as I watch Adam grow more impatient at NOT seeing a gas station immediately. When I tell him about the four-mile diversion, he’s full-on annoyed. Quietly, I snicker from the back seat. Way to go, Navigator.
Four miles later . . . Adam stops at the first gas station, a stand-alone Phillips 66, instead of the promised land that is a Quick Trip, which happens to be a hundred yards further down the road. We ended up leaving Kansas City altogether just to find a useable public restroom. The boys and I jump out, go in, and find an open restroom. Ryan goes first, comes out, no problem. I go in and sit there gobsmacked.
There’s no toilet paper.
I don’t want to get into it (for obvious reasons), but after we problem-solved that situation, I bought myself M&M’s because my mom loves M&M’s, and she was on my mind because my language at the time involved lots of mothers.