Shane and I had been planning a trip to Las Vegas for some time. After we bought the Jeep we decided it was time for one of our great road trips. All our friends thought we were crazy and some even said we were insane for driving that far. At our daughters birthday party one of our neighbours asked why we weren’t taking the Yukon "wouldn’t it be more comfortable". Sure it would be more comfortable, we would get to Las Vegas faster but it wouldn’t be near as much fun.

Despite the call for thunderstorms the day we were leaving it turned out to be an amazing day. The sun was shining and there were a few scattered clouds. We were able to start our week of freedom with the top down and fully enjoying the feel of freedom. We were welcomed to Tulsa Oklahoma with a very large electronic sign with information for Hurricane Ike evacuees. We did not take that as the best sign seeing that we were heading to Texas. The beautiful weather continued past Oklahoma City then the clouds started moving in. We drove for a long time under clouds with it not looking like it was going to rain. Then the clouds opened up and the downpour started. Barreling down the highway at 70 with the shade top on we were not even feeling rain drops. We made a mad dash to the next exit with the hopes that we would find a hotel, bank or something with a covered area so we could put the top up. At the bottom of the exit we took there was a perfectly placed abandoned gas station, what luck! Of course that luck was short lived when the light turned red and we had to sit through a traffic light. When the Jeep stopped we got soaked!

We finally made it under the wonderful shelter the old abandoned servo provided and proceed to make putting the top up a comedy for anyone watching. We have been doing this for five years, have it down to a fine art and together normally complete this task in under five minutes. It took us over 25 minutes this time, anyone watching would have assumed we were two idiots who rented a jeep with no clue how to put the top up. Everything that could have gone wrong did.

After we put the top up we got back on I-40 and kept heading towards Amarillo. The goal was to make it to somewhere near the Texas state line. We were feeling good so we continued on and finally stopped at Amarillo. for the night. We turned on CNN when we got in the room to see that Ike was almost ready to make his attack on Galveston.

Typical scenery in Oklahoma, lush green and not very exciting

Shane under the best placed abandoned servo we’ll ever find