Moving slowly, but steadily home

Closer to home are we. We stayed in Governors Suites in Oklahoma City, which was a nice place, but not very occupied. We had a very nice room and it was only $60 on Hotels.com.

Joan at Missouri rest stop

We left Oklahoma City about 8:30 a.m. and anticipating some heavy morning commute traffic, but we really never hit any traffic. I was also anticipating heavy traffic in St. Louis, but with much of the way offering a speed limit of 75 mph we arrived in St. Louis shortly before 4 p.m. which allowed us to escape both afternoon commute and evening World Series traffic.

In Missouri we stopped at a rest area that had a pretty nice Route 66 theme to it. We took each other’s picture and Joan didn’t leave me out of focus so I have posted it here to blunt her criticism of how I only post photos of her.

We arrived in Staunton, Illinois about 4:30 p.m. and checked into our hotel. Staunton is a German word that I believe means, “Nothing happens here.”

Both of us had a taste for pizza and the hotel manager suggested a downtown restaurant – Cavataio’s. We headed to town and found a downtown a lot like Lapeer, Michigan.

The restaurant was pretty empty when we came in about 5:15 p.m., but quickly filled up with a party of 25 expected in at 6:30 p.m. So a pretty happening place. The pizza took awhile, but was well worth the wait as it was a very good pizza.

There was a young child in the restaurant who screamed at the top of his lungs several times. He finally quieted down when the food arrived. But I have the urge when a screaming child is ignored more than three times by his parents to walk over and start using sign language. When they ask why I’m ‘signing’ I would say “Obviously, you must not be able to hear your child screaming and I just wanted to let you know.”

Me - in focus

Of course I don’t do that for two reasons. One, I wouldn’t want to cause a scene and two, Joan would kill me. Actually, the last reason is the real one.

For a change today we listened to “Radio Classics” on our XM radio. These are old radio serials, some that I remember and others that I’ve only heard about. Some of them are remarkably good and have stood the test of time, while others, not so much. Today there were a couple episodes of “Suspense” and one of the “Whisperer.”

I’m also a big fan of the “Life of Riley” and other comedies they frequently play on the channel.

Fibber McGee and a comedy variety show were also featured, but my favorite line of the day came from one of my favorite radio classics – Boston Blackie. At one point one of the gangsters on the show is talking about his antagonist who plays the harmonica and says: “If he keeps this up he won’t be playing a harmonica, he’ll be strumming a harp.” That is a great line.

We can tell we are no longer in Tucson as the daytime temperatures today through Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois never got above 59 degrees.

Tomorrow we are off to my sister Laura’s house near Chicago. A weekend with Laura and Philip and then we head home on Monday.