This Guy is the President of the Cat Haters Club?

Yeah, right! Don't tell him I took this picture.

Lunch in the Nation's Belly Button

I remember reading a few years back that Oklahoma City, OK is the geographical center of our country. We just pulled off and ended up in "Bricktown", what looks to be a old warehouse district where the beautiful red brick buildings have been converted from old factories into restaurants. We would probably hate this area if we lived here, but it's got a nice look & feel to it--well you can't tell by our pictures. Most of the buildings actually have windows.

Slowie Log #2: Tales from I-40

We've driven for about 3 hours on I-40 through Oklahoma. Erika was reliving the glory of watching Roadhouse last night and did her impression of Patrick Swayze doing Tai Chi:



Then we got stuck behind, as Erika would say, a Slowie carrying 8 big tires:



And, YES, it was exactly at 11:02 this morning.

The Red State Diaries #3: Erika's Wardrobe Malfunction

Traveling with Blue the Cat has been generally OK. In fact, he's even gone so far as to tuck himself in for the night:



The only problem has been dealing with his bloody right stub, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing stress of navigating Erika's Yellow all the way to California (Blue: "Stupid humans").



The other biggest challenge has been smuggling him in and out of the hotel each night.

Last night in Sallisaw, OK we decided to forego the rather obvious cat carrier and Erika put Blue in my jacket and carried him in wrapped up like a little baby. It worked out well.

This morning, however, was a different story. After getting Blue in his carrier, I asked Erika what that was on her new white shirt.

"Shit," she replied looking down where Blue had snagged a little, but noticeable hole in her shirt right below her breast. There was something going on with the camera, but it looked like this:

As Linnie Might Say:

NO! (about the morning run), but my hotel headache did disappear so maybe there is something to this exercise crap.

On the subject of WalMart Supercenters

I was going to tell the story of running around the WalMart Supercenter and have a link to the UFCW WalMartyrs page but it seems like its been taken down. I fear WalMart forced it down somehow (probably through some sort of lawsuit), since many of the links on the UFCW's WalMart Workers Campaign page are not working.

The UFCW is the United Food and Commercial Workers one of the labor unions trying to organize WM workers. Well we gotta get from Arkansas to Arizona.

Leave a comment, jerkies!

The Morning Run

We just got back from a bracing morning run around the Wal*Mart Supercenter Plaza. After a swift three laps, Mark decided to call it quits. I didn't even have to carry him until we got near the hotel. This followed by a tasty continental breakfast, courtesy of the Sallisaw Microtel, and we're ready to hit the road.

Start From the Bottom

As we noted earlier, we've been running into some problems -- which we think we've totally and finally cleared up now -- so we've added (and will be until about 1 pm tomorrow) some old posts that got lost in the shuffle.

Don't forget that some background information exists over here.

(BTW, for all you Andrew Reynolds reading: The new Q and Not U is VERY disappointing. Though for all you non-Andrew R's reading Q and Not U are still a great band for coming out against the War in Iraq early and often.)

Night, y'all.

Straight Outta An Arkansas Microtel

What a difference a night makes. This place is a palace compared to last night's Red Roof in Tupelo, MS. Erika has decided to celebrate by sitting in the window nook.



(nb. the TV in the mirror's reflection (see below) supports my earlier accusations that Erika is/was watching the TNT classic, Roadhouse)