Northward to Missouri

It was hard for us to leave Austin because we liked it so much.  That rain that seemed to be following us hit again the morning we left, giving the locals some well-deserved moisture.  It was becoming a common omen to us, but Uncle Rob and Susan thought it was out of the ordinary.

The first stop of the day was to see a buddy of mine in Killeen, Texas.  Since we were driving so close by, we thought it would make a nice breakfast stop, plus a chance to catch up with a good friend.  We ate at a nice little diner with a friendly staff for what turned into a three hour-ish breakfast.  So, at lunch time, we hit the road northward towards Dallas.

We couldn't make it without that rain catching us.  It was coming down so hard that we turned on the radio to listen for any warnings in the area, but when they gave locations, it was given by county, which didn't help us in the least since we had no idea which county we were in.  We finally had to pull over, along with lots of other vehicles, at a rest stop and wait for the rain to let up.  This gave us a nice opportunity for a nap.  We awoke to an empty rest stop with little bits of sun shining through the clouds, making for a pleasant sunset after the storm.

Throughout the journey, we had been checking our GPS's food finder for the closest Steak 'n Shake (didn't exist in California) and we finally found one in Dallas.  It was closed :(  But, we looked for another one, called and confirmed it was open, then found it and had a wonderful meal that brought back many memories of our youth of eating at Steak 'n Shake with friends. 

Since we didn't make it very far during the day light, we wanted to get as far into Oklahoma has possible before we pulled over for the night.  McAlester, Oklahoma was our stop.  They had a Best Western right by the highway and when we went into the office they were playing the Mizzou football game on the TV, so we knew we were in the right place.

The next day, we continued to drive all the way to Springfield, Missouri where we stopped for a visit with Corey.  We did like the locals and went out to eat (going out is more common there than eating at home) and we got another long meal with lots of catching up.  Corey showed us where he worked as a Manager of Operations at a local TV station.  He's pretty much the technical backbone of the whole place.  If anything goes wrong with the systems, Corey's on it.  We also spent some time over at Corey's house where we met is dachshund, Rocky and of course we started missing Cooper.

Later that evening, we drove the three hour journey to Kansas City, where we were greeted and welcomed by the James and Emily Burneson Clan.  The boys had grown so much since the last time we saw them.  We stayed with them for a few days which gave us enough time to hang out with the family and to do some sight seeing of our own.  On Lindsay's birthday, the kids and family surprised her with a cake and sang happy birthday to celebrate the joyous occasion.  One night, we went out for some good old Kansas City BBQ with the family and even got to see my Aunt Susan who drove in to see us from Kansas.  

~Blake