The adventure home

I am working on my "official" Podstock post, but in the meantime I wanted to share our trip from Wichita back to Prescott.

My Droid's GPS went flaky at some point during our stay in Kansas.  I did a search on Google and came up with various solutions (one of which required about 20 steps leaving my head spinning at the very thought of attempting it - I did NOT follow those steps!).  I found one person who said, "Turn off the phone, take out the battery, wait, put battery back in, turn the phone on, start Maps and wait."  That worked, though I also use an app called "GPS Status" to check on, well, my GPS status.  I whole-heartedly recommend you get that app if you use your GPS.

Once the GPS was working again, I programmed our destination into the phone and we were ready to roll.  The gas station across from the hotel is open 24 hours a day...if you want fuel. Want souvenirs? Monday-Friday only. DOH! Oh well. I should have purchased goodies at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Show when I had the chance. Live and learn from our mistakes, I guess. 

Sidenote: After I got to Prescott, I met Shan and the kids at the church and our preacher's message was "Sieze the Moment."  I did not do so in Kansas as far as goodies go, but I will not make that mistake again - I will Sieze the Moment!

Where was I? Ah yes, we fill up the tank and follow the directions to the on-ramp for I-35 South.  As it turns out, the nearest entrance for us was.... CLOSED due to construction. Undeterred, I take the on-ramp for I-35 North and we get off at the next exit, make a quick turnaround, and cruise down the road heading south.

Somewhere, I got distracted and missed the Rte400 > I-235 South entrance that the GPS told me to take.  So, the GPS adjusted our course and we followed I-35 to 412 basically to Tulsa, where we grabbed 244 and kept on trucking.  But, if we had simply done that, we would not have the adventure to remember, would we?

The order of events a little foggy in my mind, but I will relate them anyway.  I-244 outside of Tulsa is under construction.  Or, rather, I-244 outside of Tulsa is GONE! There is no road. There are no bridges.  There are several pieces of equipment, but the entire road has been removed from existence. I'm sure someone is putting it back when they're done with it, but for now, the area is a wasteland.

When lunchtime rolled around, we decided to stop at Arby's for a bite.  I decided to visit the men's room to wash up and such before eating.  I opened the door and closed it without a second thought.  When I turned my head toward the facilities, I saw an older man dressed in his Sunday clothes sitting on the commode with his pants around his ankles.  The urinal was mounted on the wall next to him. As you can surmise, there were no partitions.

"Oh, I'm sorry! The door was unlocked. I didn't realize anyone was in here," I said as I backed toward the door.
"No problem! Come on in. You won't bother me any."  He began fiddling with the underwear caught in his breeches.  It was really more than I wished to experience.  I quickly stood at the urinal, not quite sure how to handle the situation.  I opted to look straight at the wall in front of me and did not say a word.  The whole time, my mind raced, wondering if I should say something to engage conversation.  Does one strike up a conversation when there are no partitions?  I wished I had just walked out as soon as I saw him.  I wished I could get done with thins a heck of a lot faster than they were happening.  I finally opted to get quit, wash up and get out.  I wished the old man a good day, not sure if the man was actually in need of assistance, as he appeared to be almost falling off the commode while fumbling with his clothes.  I decided he was handling things fine on his own.  Besides, there was no way I could picture myself being to help this total stranger with his pants around his ankles without the whole thing just being....weird. It was weird.

The entire trip home, Doug and I checked in to our FourSquare accounts, posting the places we visited as we made the journey home.  It was fun, funny, and completely nerdy. 

Unlike the trip TO Kansas, the return trip found very few (if any) live animals for us to dodge.  Instead, roadkill seemed to be flavor of the day.  Skunks, armadillos, raccoons, and critters no longer identifiable left their marks on the roads.

After lunch, we drove for a while and decided to stop for a break and some ice cream.  Along the Indian Nation Turnpike, EZ-Go (or Kum-and-Go) gas stations and McDonald's restaurants have replaced the HoJo's of olden days.  We walked into the hottest Mickey-D's I have ever experienced. It was so hot and humid inside that when someone opened the door, a cool breeze came INTO the place!  A family sitting at one of the tables near the line must have been locals.  The man said, "Welcome to the hottest McDonald's in the world. (Name of Owner) doesn't believe in air conditioning."  his wife smacked him and told him to be quiet.  He retorted that the statement was true.  She rolled her eyes.  "What!? It's true!" He took a bite of his Big Mac.  I simply agreed that it was hot.  In addition to that, the line merged from two directions at the single open register.  Yeap, that's right. Twenty people in line and one register.  What was the manager doing? Fries. Lovely.  At some point (no less than 20 minutes by my estimation), we ordered our ice cream.  Five minutes after that, we got our snack.

Speaking of the turnpike, did you know that Oklahoma does not actually "welcome" you to the state.  There's just a sign. It says, "Oklahoma."  There's probably a subtitle that reads "You're here. Our two-lane roads have a 65mph speed limit. What else do you want?"

Oh, Oklahoma also has signs posted along the highway that read "Do Not Drive Into Smoke."  As we were driving along, we crested a "hill" (I use the term loosely when referring to OK) and saw... SMOKE! Holy cow!  Off to the right, a plume of smoke rose behind some trees.  Oh my goodness, what were we going to do!? We hurtled closer and the wind seemed to be in our favor as the smoke only lightly wafted above the road. As we passed the source, it turned out to be someone burning leaves or trash or something in their yard.  Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

We all cheered when we saw the "Arkansas Welcomes You" sign as we headed for DeQueen.  In Oklahoma, we could travel at 65mph on the backroads. Legally. Really, it's posted!  In Arkansas, it's 55.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but think about the difference between sitting still and going 10mph.  You see?  Of course, if that weren't enough, we had every person pulling some kind of trailer pull out in front of us in a no-passing zone.  I think at one point, I considered just gunning the vehicle and pulling off a "Dukes of Hazzard" jump off the ramps on the back of one flat-bed.  Except we weren't in my Charger.  I figured Phoebe wouldn't care much to have her SUV hurtling through the air over a farm truck. I could be wrong.

We pulled into Prescott, and I met Shan and the kids at church.  Since we got there before they did, I stood in the parking lot beside my suitcase.  I had on shorts and my Podstock t-shirt.  I looked like I had just come from a mission trip.  I suppose in a way, I had.

Podstock 2010 - Road Trip

Podstock has become an annual educational technology conference, or 'unconference' as some like to call it, held in Wichita, Kansas.  This year, a team from Arkansas is attending in the hopes that we not only learn cool new things, but also to learn how we can replicate it in our state.  Podstock mastermind Kevin Honeycutt has a franchising program for his 'un'-conference and the folks from Arkansas are going to learn what it takes to make Podstock happen.

Of course, before we can get THERE, we had to get there... As in to Wichita.  And, thus begins my tale.

Around 8am on Thursday, Phoebe, Doug, and I met to load up Phoebe's vehicle for the 9-hour (roughly) trip to Podstock.  Our original plan was to take the sign above and tape it to the inside of one of her windows.  The problem?  her windows are too dark to see the sign from the outside.  So, the solution came in the form of double-sided tape.  Phoebe attached the sign to the outside of her window.  We had to use a rear side window because the wiper on the back window kept messing with the poster.  We checked the sign for security and everything looked good.  Loaded up, we begin our journey!

As we approach a local funeral home, Phoebe asks how the sign is doing.  "So far, so good," I say.  That is immediately followed by the sound of the sign ripping away from the window and flapping in the wind, still attached along one edge!  We pull over into the parking lot of the funeral home and hold a mini-service for the idea.  Not for the sign.  The sign is laminated at survived being blown off the window.  We let the sign ride inside with us the rest of the way.

Along the way, we meet what appears to be a large dog running in our lane.  As we approach, we see that the animal is running TOWARD us!  The distance between us and the four-legged creature grows smaller and smaller.  When it is close enough, we realize it is a FAWN, still will spots!  Phoebe hits the brakes and swerves, the deer puts on its own brakes, skidding along the road.  It loses its balance, falling, rolling on the ground.  We pass by.  I turn around (I am sitting in the middle row) and the little guy (or girl) is nowhere to be seen.  It must have taken off like a shot into the woods!

One might think that is the end of the adventure.  But, then this wouldn't be a road trip, would it?

We managed to dodge several dogs, two turtles, and the deer. What we, or rather *I*, did not manage to dodge was some kind of... pipe or piece of wood or something... in the road.  I don't know what it was, and we checked the tires after I hit it.  For the sake of honesty (and, yes humor), I need to explain that as we dodged MOVING, LIVING creatures, Phoebe was driving.  The only time we hit anything, I was driving. And, that thing was stationary.  It laid in the lane, not moving at all, and the part of my brain that says, "Hey, you might might to move over here" failed me.  I tried to blame it on the car in front of us, but realized that would not fly.  The vehicle in front of us was far enough ahead that the element of surprise did not exist.

During our trip, we stopped in a place called Antlers, Oklahoma.  It's a town with about 2500 people or so.  It's basically the last town on our trip before the Indian Nation Turnpike (if memory serves).  We found a little burger joint and decided to stop for lunch.

Inside, three middle-aged-ish folks (a man and two women) stood around, basically waiting for customers it seemed.  The place had several picnic tables outside and maybe half a dozen small tables with chairs inside.  The menu offered burgers, hot dogs, catfish, philly cheesesteak, and a myriad of other options.  I chose the "Big Buck" burger - a large cheeseburger with two kinds of cheeses, jalapenos, lettuce, mustard, ketchup, and pickles.  The food tasted very good, but the conversations that took place gave us pause.

At one point, a younger guy (teens, early twenties maybe) comes in, and he evidently works there.  He tells the tale of he and his friends going out for a late-night bicycle ride.  Evidently, this is a new thing to be happening in the small town (the late-night part) because he explains to one of the women (or to anyone who was listening, I guess) that several people yelled at them, wanting to know why anyone would be riding their bikes that late at night!  He explained in great detail how winded he got while riding up certain hills, and how tired he and his friends were by the end of the ride.

After his story, one of the women says, "Look at this mess back here!  If that guy on that TV show came in here, he'd really be upset!"  A moment later, she is trying to come up with the name of the show and finally settles on Kitchen Disasters.  Now remember, we are EATING in this place.  Doug never hears the conversation.  Phoebe and I stop mid-bite and look at each other with large, concerned eyes as we slowly turn our focus to each other's (and then our own) food.  We finished our meal, and decided she must have been talking about the ice cream freezer.  Why? Because that is what we needed to believe.

As we are finishing up, and older man and a young boy enter the Barn.  They stand at the counter and pick out what they want.  As they stand there, another older man comes in and the two men exchange handshakes and pleasantries.  Evidently, they haven't seen each other for a while.  The boy says, "Who are you and how do you know my paw-paw?"  Direct little bugger, ain't he?

The man introduces himself, puts his hand out as if measuring the height of something, and says, "I've known your paw-paw since I was your big!"  That was all Phoebe and I could handle without bursting into fits of laughter.  The man's was endearing and unsettling all at once.

Naturally, you can't have a road trip without a detour, so on our route, we had to take a detour that didn't seem to add any time to the trip, just took us out of our way.  When the detour was over, we found ourselves more than halfway further down the road than we expected, so at least we weren't backtracking!

The last curiosity I want to bring up occurred while traveling the Indian Nation Turnpike.  We saw round hay bales along the roadside.  Now, in Arkansas, we see that all the time, except they are INSIDE the fence line that runs along the highway.  The bales we saw were scattered along the SHOULDERS of the highway.  Phoebe decided this was a way to make money!  rather than just mow the grass along the highways in Arkansas, we should bale it up and sell it as way to raise money!  She's pitching the idea to everyone she meets.  I think she'll find a taker eventually.

Podstock 2010 - July 16 & 17

 

Oh, yeah!! Gotta be gearin' up for Podstock 2010 in Wichita, KS!

What is "Podstock?"  Think Woodstock, education, and technology all meeting in one creative two-day event!  The event comes from the amazingly creative mind of Kevin Honeycutt and others at ESSDACK in Hutchinson, KS.  Mark you calendar now, and RSVP via the 2010 PodStock Facebook event page! Kevin has also created the PodStock Ning.  If you follow the link, you can sign up for more info and follow along as Podstock takes place.  I am planning on being there!  I have a feeling I will be letting my creative juices flow - and we all know what happens when that lets loose!  We're talking parodies, photos, videos, and general creative mayhem!

Wesley Fryar recorded a three-minute video to whet your appetite: