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Rapunzel took us on a new
route from the Oklahoma City KOA to US 44…the Kickapoo Turnpike where the lanes
are wide and the speed is 80 mph. Not that we were going that fast but the
possibility existed.
It’s a toll road with no
toll booth so I’m sure somewhere on down the road we’ll be getting a bill in
the mail. I’d much rather pay the toll at the time than have the system take a
picture of our license plate, look up our information and
send a bill. Just my personal preference
but it’s Oklahoma’s system not mine.
Then it was onto I-44,
which took us through Oklahoma and Missouri and right to the middle of the Mississippi
River where I-55 took over. I chose that
route knowing that 44 was a toll road but it was the quickest route home
and at this point in our travels I thought paying a few bucks was worth avoiding
the extra minutes and miles. My butt is
sick of sitting.
Well, two tolls at $12.25
each makes for a bit more than a few bucks but I still think it’s worth it on
the way home.
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Most of the diesel fuel
prices we’ve been seeing have been under $5.00…it was mostly over that in Arizona. Unleaded has been down in the $3.75 range in TX,
OK and MO. It was in the $4.50 range in Arizona. So we are seeing slightly lower prices as we
head home but for all I know it has started to drop in AZ also.
Yesterday we paid $4.89/gal
in Carrizozo, AZ, which surprised me because it’s a little out of the way
town. In Amarillo, TX, the price was $4.79
and the pump maxed out and shut off before the truck was totally full. Same in Hinton, OK, but the price was higher
at $4.98. Today prices were slightly
kinder with Joplin, MO, taking the low spot at $4.69/gal and Stanton, MO,
coming in at $4.79. Back up to $4.99 in Montrose,
IL. Maybe will only need one more
fill-up to get home.
It’s crazy when your
brain sees $4.69 and thinks, “Well, that’s not bad.”
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We don’t make as many
frivolous stops on the way home as we do on the way out. When our thoughts turn toward home after a
long time away it’s all about making good time and not so much about seeing the
sights. But sometimes the need to get
out and stretch is greater than the need to get home 15 minutes earlier so I’ll
turn to the Roadside America app to see what’s along the way. Interesting, nearby, plenty of parking and
free are my criteria.
 |
| Quarter scale model |
Marshfield is very proud
of its connection to Hubble, who was born in 1889 and spent his first 10 years
there before the Hubble family moved to Chicago. He died in California in 1953 at the age of
63, as a result of a stroke.
On biography.com I picked up 7 facts about Edwin Hubble, the
man who changed our universe forever (their words, not mine):
*He
revolutionized astronomy: In the 1920s, Hubble made history by
looking through a 100-inchtelescope at Mount Wilson in Southern California.
Training his gaze on the Andromeda Nebula, he saw stars similar to ones in our
galaxy, only dimmer. One of those stars was a Cepheid variable, which astronomers could use to measure
distances. The discovery of the Cepheid variable allowed Hubble to deduce that
the Andromeda Nebula was not a nearby cluster of stars, but an entirely
different galaxy. The very notion that there was more than one
galaxy in the universe was revolutionary and earned Hubble the title as the
greatest astronomer since Galileo.
*He helped
Albert Einstein: Discovering that our galaxy wasn’t alone was just the
beginning for Hubble. He continued measuring distances and velocities in deep
space, finding that the further apart galaxies are from each other, the faster
they move away from one another. His findings, published in 1929, led to the
widely accepted notion that the universe is expanding. Albert
Einstein personally thanked
Hubble for the support his findings gave to his theory of relativity.
*He was a gifted athlete: A gifted athlete,
he stood out in basketball, football and baseball. He broke the state record in
the high jump and ran track at the University of Chicago.
*He was a
high school basketball coach: Although he didn’t
discuss it much later in life, Hubble spent a year teaching physics, math, and
Spanish at New Albany High School in Indiana. He also coached the school’s
basketball team, leading a team of undefeated Bulldogs to the state tournament,
where they came in third place.
*He
reinvented himself: Eager to climb up
the social ladder, he adopted a British accent (like the ones he heard while
studying at Oxford University), sported a pipe and cape, and padded his CV
(claiming he had handled legal cases in Kentucky when he had not).
*He fought in two world wars
*He never
won the Nobel Prize: Despite
his accomplishments, Hubble never won the Nobel Prize in physics, since
astronomers were ruled ineligible for the award (that rule has since changed).
He has received other accolades, however. Both an asteroid and a Moon crater
bear his name. But his most famous honor is the Hubble telescope, which
launched in 1990.
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Drove about 640 miles
today…just over 500 to go. Stopped for
the night at a KOA in Casey, IL which we may or may not stayed at on our way
home in 2020 with my mom on board. I’ll
know better in the morning if this is the same one.
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Today’s 40 Days of Lent
challenge was to call someone who I think might be lonely. Well, I don’t think that the person I called
is necessarily lonely…he’s just my favorite awkward teenage boy and I wanted to
connect with him. He was overshadowed by
his siblings during my birthday call and God has been nudging me to give him a
call just to let him know that he’s important to me. Mission accomplished! J
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