Day 8: Ick and Sick

Saturday, June 14

Fast Facts
Starting: Kansas
Ending: Kansas
Today's Mileage/Total Mileage: 373 mi (600 km)/2108 mi (3392 km)

ICK
Today we awoke to a couple of disturbing discoveries:
1) one of the tent poles was clearly broken - we were lucky the tent was still standing
2) the outside of the tent was completely soaked - and it had not rained last night at all

The latter was really only a problem for Bird, as she continually forgot to not touch the tent walls and spend half the night pressed up against it. She was soaked. We delayed our departure so we could wait for the tent to dry out.

The former, however, was a problem for all of us, considering I like having an (albeit flimsy) roof over our heads at night. We contemplate a couple of solutions (duct tape might have been mentioned) and figure we'll deal with it the next time we have to set up the tent.

SICK
Our family vacations really are not complete unless at least one of us requires medical attention at some point. [For instance, last summer we had to visit 3 clinics in three different states before the nastiness was done with all of us.] As we drove across Kansas, however, I could no longer deny the fact that I was in desperate need of some antibiotics. I'd picked up a cold over the weekend in Tennessee that likely turned into a sinus infection last Tuesday or so. Today, however, it spread to my ear, and that pain was just a bit too much.

Now, if only one person is sick, it's too easy to just find a walk-in clinic. They don't do those on a Saturday in Kansas. So instead I found myself in Abilene Memorial Hospital's Emergency Room. And 1.5 hours later in a Walgreens 20 miles away in the next town over to fill the prescription. But oh the sweet relief when the pills started to kick in!!!

Between drying the tent out and visiting hospitals, however, we still had to cross the entire state of Kansas. Since we really had no reservations made or deposits paid, we were able to go a little farther than planned and found a KOA in Goodland, Kansas (doesn't that sound like a nice place to live?). And to avoid having to fix the tent, we just stayed in one of their one-room cabins. Very nice indeed, especially on the ear.

So I will leave you with these two pictures from I-70, taken during today's drive:

1. It really is as flat as you think it is, though there are occasionally hills.


(Your computer is fine. The streaks are because I took this picture through the car window.)

2. Windmills are pretty, even when they are all metal.