Whoever you are, take your seat on the bus!

Good night from Milford State Park in Milford, Kansas, where we were not planning to sleep tonight.
 
We started the day in Oklahoma and loafed a while before driving north to Tanganyika, an interactive wildlife park in Goddard, Kansas. We fed romaine to giraffes, tortoises, and guinea pigs, little tubs of milky fluid to lorikeets, and craisins to lemurs. We pet kangaroos (who were surprisingly chill). Kato fell in love with the lorikeets and Augie with the guinea pigs. I’m guessing there will be another power point presentation in my future.  
 
Afterward, we drove to Wichita and found a grocery store. The kids stayed in the bus to do their homework, and Robbi and I spent a few minutes strolling the aisles, totally alone except for the other hundred or so people in the store. It was the closest thing we’ve had to a date in a while. We were hungry and probably bought more food than we needed, including an inadvisable box of Peeps-flavored cereal.
 
Then we drove two hours to our next campsite, a lovely spot on the banks of a lake, where we parked and set up camp only to discover the bathrooms were locked for the “off season.” The “off season” ends in two days, but Robbi couldn’t wait that long. She scowled profoundly by the lakeside as I packed up the bus for departure. She consulted the Google and found a new park an hour down the road.
 
On this drive, I made a terrible error, opening my driver window at the wrong moment and creating a draft that blew my favorite lei from Hawaii out the window. I despaired, but Robbi did not. We turned around, found my lei, and rejoiced as the sun set.
 
Then we drove another hour to a new park where we poked around in the dark for a bathroom that worked. The first set of bathrooms we found was also locked, but we persisted and finally found a set with doors that actually opened. More rejoicing transpired.
 
Now we are parked and Dumbles is getting his frisk on. Robbi is making a salad, and soon we will all pile onto the mattress on the back and watch TV.
 
It’s good to be back in Kansas, where I lived from sixth grade through the end of high school. Stay tuned for blasts from my past.
 
#busloadofbooks ...

Good night from Coon Creek Cove in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Some days we wake up with a clear sense of what’s going to happen and other days we’re utterly surprised as weather shifts or opportunities present themselves.   
 
Today was some of both. We spent much of the day at Olive Elementary, hosted by librarian Barbara Smythe. It’s a day we’ve been anticipating for 18 months, and it was just as fun as we’d hoped. We’ll tell you all about it soon.
 
What surprised us was what Barbara said as we were leaving. In addition to being a librarian, STEM teacher, and mother of four, she’s a volunteer firefighter and wondered if we might want to tour the fire station on our way out of town.
 
We nodded enthusiastically and Barbara called the chief to set up a tour. As it turns out, the chief was her husband Tim, who has recently taken over for his dad who had been chief for forty years prior.
 
Tim couldn’t have been more gracious or warm. He spent almost two hours showing us the various trucks, opening every compartment, demonstrating where the various hoses, ladders, tanks, and tools are stored and how they’re used. He let us sit in the cab, turned on the sirens, and gave us a demo of the heat sensors the firefighters use to find people or animals during a search and rescue.
 
All of the vehicles are customized to the specific needs of Tim’s community. In addition to two decommissioned military trucks Tim has converted into 2,500-gallon tankers, there’s a fleet of pickups set up to combat brush fires, which are the most common call for the Freedom Hill Station.
 
Tim showed us the office, the classroom where he runs trainings for firefighters from other towns, and the bank of lockers where the firefighters have their coats, pants, and boots carefully hung and folded for easy access at a moment’s notice.  
 
I’d never known how much goes into setting up and running a fire station. It was incredible to hear someone so knowledgeable walk us through how everything works. Thank goodness there are people like Tim and Barbara willing to devote so much time and energy for the good of their communities. It was an honor to meet them both today.
 
#busloadofbooks ...