Day Six: March 3rd, 2010: Travel day to Coffeyville, Kansa

Day Six: March 3rd, 2010: Travel day to Coffeyville, Kansas

Oh, the fields of Kansas! They’re kind of a golden brown this time of the year, all the way to the horizon. Traveling east, the sun is in our eyes, but, hey, there’s sun! Looking around at the vast sky we see flocks of migrating birds flying north. Yes, spring is smiling at us. No tornados, either, so far. The temperatures today are expected to approach 60.

I forgot to tell you about the wolf we saw yesterday! We made eye contact, as this big furry thing was wandering not more than 20 feet from the interstate on the other side of a wire fence. Wow! It was beautiful! It also looked well fed. I wonder what it had for dinner last night: Leg of Lamb or Shoulder of Beef.

We also saw about six wild turkeys! They were crossing the road. We have no idea why. No kidding. We were on an off ramp when these beautiful enormous birds with bright red necks and black and white flecked bodies gave us a look, like, “Don’t try anything.” Frank was already fantasizing about the joys of the smoker vs. the grill.

The sun is now beating down on the sleeves of my black sweater, as this laptop is kind of warm, too. Good thing I have my apron on. Maybe I should just take the sweater off, just leaving this kicky blue apron for Frank to feast his eyes on! Maybe I’ll wait a bit and just change into my running clothes instead. Four hours into this eight-hour drive we hope to run another 5K somewhere. Do people run in Kansas? Maybe they run from the police. We just passed some poor soul who got pulled over for speeding. Frank just asked me to call the headquarters for highway patrol to ask how much we can go over 70mph before getting a ticket. Oh, boy! Did I get that billboard right? “Gas, Food, Lodging, Adult Superstore, Jesus is Real.” All in one rest stop! Actually, Frank just corrected me. They were two billboards back-to-back. The yellow brick road has something for everyone, I guess.

Tonight we are staying with some very dear friends who moved to Pittsburg, Kansas after knowing us in Venice Beach, Ca. for many years. I wrote about them in the tour blog two years ago, but now there’s more story to tell: Suzy and Frank Butorac have been a childless couple who lovingly took care of everyone else’s children for years, being Godparents to many, including our daughter, Allie. They are in their early 60’s and very young for their age. Since we saw them last, they’ve adopted a son! Dillon, who is now 12, lost his father to cancer when he was about seven. Then, tragically, he lost his mother at age ten. He had an older brother and two elderly grandparents at the time who were not well. Suzy and Frank were good friends of the parents and also Dillon’s Godparents. Without missing a beat, they were both in Los Angeles to the funeral and to be there for Dillon. Adoptive feelings were mutual on both sides, and the boy was now to start his new life on acres of land, at their loving home over the rainbow. His older brother Travis, in his early twenties, was so happy for him he was almost envious. Two years ago I described their wonderful homestead, just the two of them. Now they’re a family, doing school, church, sports teams, and homework with their now 12-year-old. It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, as one can imagine, but reports are that his grades are up as well as successful adjustments all around. In just a few hours, we get to meet the new son of our friends of 25 years. Actually, Dillon and Frank are “batchin’ it” this week because Suzy is in Seattle with her mother who is very ill. The two Franks have been talking about popping open bags of potato chips and eating dinner over the sink. Looks like I’m outnumbered here!

We just ate lunch at “Jim’s Chicken” in Salina. I confess that with fried chicken, it’s all about the greasy, crispy salty skin for me. Who needs the boring the white meat? I often give it to others in exchange for their skin. In my health-conscious family, I usually make out pretty well. This place had the good stuff. We left the eighties-style décor and the heavy-set women in blue uniforms and white, sensible shoes to nest back into our seats for the next four hours. But wait, I needed to put my blue apron back on! Frank smirked and called me a “Car Frau!” Maybe I should really go with this look and put my hair in pink curlers, and smother my face in Oil of Olay.

We had a sudden change of plans. Dillon came home from school early with a fever of 100 and was vomiting. Not a good time to be houseguests. We were all disappointed, but we do plane to pass through Pittsburg to see them as we go north to Minnesota after our concert Friday morning. We have a box of extra CDs we had shipped there to pick up. Well, that’s life.

We decided to go straight to Coffeyville and go ahead and get a hotel for two nights. We could settle in for tomorrow’s concert, at their middle school auditorium. Tonight’s bed is a King. Ahhhh. The room is elegant and the property, The Sleep Inn, is new. Our first impulse was to collapse on the luxurious bed, but there was still sunshine out there! So, we took a run through town until sunset. What a way to see a place! What a way for the residents to see us! We were oddballs, for sure. Even a police car drove by a few times, starring at us. We didn’t care. It felt so good to get the old blood moving again. To top it off, we dove in the hotel pool and soaked in the hot tub.

Tomorrow is concert #3. It’s all going so fast. Love is in the air. I can feel it. I can’t wait. More tomorrow. My eyes are heavy. There’s no place like Kansas There’s no place like Kansas. There’s n o pl ac e li k e zzzzzzzzz