Having not made it to Oklahoma Joe's before they closed on Wednesday evening, Tanya and I thumbed our noses at the health food gods once again and headed straight there for lunch this afternoon. The beauty of Oklahoma Joe's is that you can get world-class BBQ and fill up your gas tank all in one stop. Most food available at a gas station has been sitting on rollers for a few days, but not here. I went for the half rack of pork ribs while Tanya went with the house specialty, the pulled pork sandwich. Shortly after, however, she had buyer's remorse and regretted not ordering the Z-man sandwich, which consists of BBQ pork and beef topped with provolone cheese and two fried onion rings. Neither of us left disappointed, however. It was just as good as I remembered when I first had it back in 2006 or 2007.
The day's itinerary called for potential stops in Lawrence (KS), Lincoln (NE), Omaha (NE), Norfolk (NE), and Sioux City (IA), ultimately ending in Sioux Falls (SD). After finishing lunch, we headed towards Highway 10 and Lawrence to see the University of Kansas, and more specifically, Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Whenever I've been on a college campus and have tried to get into the basketball arena or football stadium, I'm always surprised how easy it often is. That was certainly the case with Allen Fieldhouse.
You know you're on the grounds of a legit basketball school when you enter campus via Naismith Drive. After spotting signs for Allen Fieldhouse, we parked in an adjoining parking deck that led directly to the building. On many campuses, the arena isn't very accessible, with the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill the worst offender. But here, we pulled right into the parking deck, walked about 100 feet and entered the arena to find all of what you see below. Did you know that in addition with inventing the game of basketball, Dr. James Naismith is also credited with inventing the football helmet? Me neither.
I've now been in some of the meccas of college basketball including Breslin in East Lansing, the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, Cameron at Duke, Assembly Hall in Bloomington, IN, and now Allen Fieldhouse. Removing Breslin from the conversation because of my inability to be impartial, I can easily say Allen Fieldhouse is my favorite college basketball venue I've been in. It has all the charm of Cameron with more history and without the dank, dark feeling you get inside Cameron. The vast majority of seats come in the form of wooden bleachers that are painted blue and red, all of which feel like they're right on top of the court. It looks exactly like the type of place college basketball was meant to be played in.
After leaving Lawrence, it was time to head north instead of west for one of the few times thus far on our trip. We worked our way back to KC and took I-29 north out of the city towards Omaha. Our route took us through the heartland of Iowa where we saw endless fields of corn and the accompanying irrigation systems (or "corn machines" as Southern Californian Tanya called them in her excitement).
Somewhere near the Iowa-Nebraska border, we stopped at a Sapp Brothers truck stop where we saw what was billed as the world's largest coffee pot. As far as we could tell, though, it was simply a water tower painted to look like a coffee pot. Any disappointment we felt was quickly assuaged, though, by a trip to the gift shop. It's here where I learned three very important lessons: there is a resale market for stuffed animals won at county fairs, Tanya doesn't like gag gifts involving plastic rats, and Iowans love both Jesus and the Detroit Lions.
As sad I was to walk out of the shop without having bought a salt-and-pepper shaker holder in the shape of a motorcycle-riding skeleton that I had my eye on, we forged onto Omaha, where our second pleasant experience with convenient parking took place. Tanya had her heart set on a meat and cheese-stuffed bread pocket, which appears to be the specialty at local Omaha fast food chain Runza, so she pointed the GPS to the closest one we could find near the downtown area and we were on our way. As we pulled into town, we happened upon a jazz concert taking place in the mid-town area of the city called "Jazz on the Green". What appeared to be thousands of locals converged on a green space for a free concert by a pretty good African band. Before we realized what was going on, we were being ushered into a city parking structure by the attendant. Not only was the parking structure mere feet away from the city park where the concert was taking place, but the cost of parking was completely free. We grabbed a blanket of out of the trunk and headed toward the show, with a pit stop to Runza planned on the way. As we approached the restaurant, the lone worker shut off the lights, which was eerily reminiscent of the woman at the riverboat cafe yesterday who slammed the "Closed" sign in our face just as we were getting ready to place our order. I'm trying not to take it personally.
We then headed toward the park where we found a place to lay our blanket, watch the show, and gawk at the locals. At one point, Tanya commented about the fact that there were absolutely no bugs, which was a welcomed change from all the mosquitoes we had to contend with due to the wet Chapel Hill summer we had this year.
After the show ended, we headed for Sioux City, IA, having given up hope of making it as far as Sioux Falls, SD as we originally hoped. After arriving at the hotel, we settled in, which is when I realized that my nascent beard, longer than it's ever been in my life, was decidedly white in a number of places. Just another reason to get rid of it as soon as this trip ends.
Tomorrow's itinerary calls for the holy trinity of South Dakota attractions: the Corn Palace in Mitchell, Wall Drug, and Mount Rushmore, with a trip through the Badlands thrown in for good measure. Given our proclivity to sleep in and not hit the road until well after noon, however, I'll be happy if we make it to the first two.
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