Storm of the century

Last night we were rudely woken up by the most terrifying thunder and lightening storm I've ever seen. It started blowing rain inside the pop-up and I got soaked trying to figure out how to close the screen on the door. The thunder was so loud, I guess it must be because the land just streches on flot forever in Illinois.
This morning we folded up the wet pop-up, and fought with the trailer to get it hooked to the Rav4, then around 10 we set out for some breakfast.

We had probably the best meal we've had so far at a little place where everyone knew each other, and it suddenly dawned on all of us that WE are now the ones who talk funny.
After that we said goodbye to Illinois and headed for St. Louis to cross the Mississippi River for the first time in the girls and my life.

St. Louis had the arch that we took about 200 pictures of, it was fun to drive through to because we pretty much thought we were going the wrong direction the entire time, but it turns out we went the exact right way. So it all worked out.
Apparently the Mississippi is smaller in St. Louis than it is in other cities. I think if we hadn't been in stopped traffic on the bridge I don't even think we would have noticed that we were crossing it.

After getting through the city we started our adeventure through Missouri. The girls slept until we stopped at a rest stop, where we realized that we had lost power to the trailer. The hookup for the breaks and blinkers had been lost along the road. So then started our adventure to get that fixed. Which was basically an almost 3 hour affair. We pulled into Sullivan, MO and found a Goodyear that fixed it, but it took them forever to do it. We walked around Wal*Mart for a while, then had lunch at BK where we all took turns being Burger Kings and Queens. Finally at almost 4 we were back on the road to Oklahoma City.
Somewhere in Missouri Grandpa discovered that he could buy real fireworks. He got really excited about that, and bought a whole bunch. He was happy to be breaking the Maine laws.

And it was a very long road, but eventually we made it here and we drove past the campsite, but luckily the street was a short dead end so we turned around and found it. We had a small fiasco with the power to the camper, but after about an hour of set up we finally are ready to settle down. It's about 12:3o here, and we're all exhausted, but we're excited to spend tomorrow here in Oklahoma City, and possibly sleep in!
And for Uncle Glen, a cloud that looks like a tornado in Oklahoma!