Day 10: Which Way Do We Go George?! (06/30/08)

We're up and heading to Enid, OK. Ahhh...what comes next well, I guess it was inevitable. You knew it would happen sooner or later. It's the nature of the beast.

We stop off at the IHOP in Enid for breakfast and wait for Colleen and Lynette to show up.

I'm sitting on the far end of the table and a few of the girlz have maps out are discussing a route.

The day before Carol stated that there was nothing in Dodge City and that we should skip it all together. Well, that didn't sit well with me because Jett & I were looking forward to it. HELL...why do you think I brought my fricken cowboy hat, after all?!!! Jett just shook her head in agreement with Carol and I just walked away. Let me just say, a lot of the places we stayed at had nothing but we stayed there regardless.

Okay, so back to IHOP. I'm not listening to the conversation about where we're going. What I write in the next paragraph is based what I heard and read from others.

Next thing you know, the group is splitting up. Dodge City, KS will be skipped and a more direct route to Laughlin is Carol & Jett's goal. Lilia is thinking of doing her own thing.

Lynette finally shows up but Colleen is still not around.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on with the group. Carol & Jett want to get to Laughlin as soon as they can. Lilia wants to be on her own. Anita's planning to take off on her own. Becky & Lilia go off and talk. Jett & Carol are outside on the bench looking at the map. I'm getting a bit irritated to the point I was ready to rent a U-haul and trailer my bike back home because I didn't know what was happening. Remember, in an earlier post I mentioned we had alot of chiefs on this trip and not many indians. Everyone is getting to that point where they aren't so willing to just settle. Some want their space. What do you expect? We've been on the road with each other for 10 days straight. It's hot out and we're getting irritated and restless.

I decided since Dodge City, KS wasn't going to be on the route (depending on what the final decision was) that I would take the opportunity to wear my cowboy hat in the parking lot of the IHOP in Enid, OK. Woo hoo!!

Jett asked if I wanted to go with her, Kaye and Carol but I told her that I needed to wait on my roomie and see what she wanted to do.

Becky comes up to me and asks if I wanted to ride with her and Lilia. She said that we would try and keep to the original route and that we would be going to Dodge City, KS. That sounded just fine with me.

Colleen finally shows up after going the wrong way based on some wrong directions given to her. :) She also wanted to ride with her buddy Becky.

It now seemed that the group had split up in two. Jett, Carol & Kaye in one group and the rest of us in the other. I felt an uneasiness with everyone yet I didn't know the entire story of what & why things transpired as they did.

Jett wasn't happy, Kaye was in tears, Lilia was in tears and I was so effing confused.

I did what I had been doing this entire trip...going with the flow. We said our goodbye's and took off. Definitely not what I wanted but minds were made up.

Becky was taking charge of this portion of the trip now. She said we would be going to Dodge City, KS as planned. So, we had to re-reserve our rooms again since we had cancelled all the hotels from Dodge City, KS and on back at the restaurant. We were just going to wing it the remainder of the trip.

We head onto highway 11 near Cherokee, OK where we make a u-turn to park across the street. There are a couple of cars parked and people carrying large water bottles. I wasn't sure where we were until Lilia said that this is where an artesian well is located. I take this opportunity to cool myself off after filling up my water bottle.

We meet a family there and they ask about our trip. Kate aka "Skatin' Kate" is a firecracker. She has us busting up. Her husband Jack just keeps quiet in the background but will let out a couple of one-liners at the chance. We do a photo op with them and head on our way.

Photo: Counter-clockwise from top:  grandkid 1, Lynette, grandkid 2, Colleen, Kate, Anita, Jack, Becky, Lilia and me (Renee)

We finally make it to Dodge City, KS. We pull up to the visitor center, where across the way we can see the Dodge City Museum behind a fence. It was closed. Went to the hotel and checked in. The girlz were going to leave their bikes up front but I chose to go around back. Okay, this area doesn't look to be the "safest". It looks more like my neck of the woods. Anyway, I ride my bike around the back. Our room is below the parking lot. I decided that instead of trekking my bags around the way through the stairs, that I would just pop out the window and bring everything through there.

Lilia, Colleen and Becky follow around the back to park their bikes, while Anita & Lynette chose to keep their bikes up front.

Colleen's trying to get her bags in the window when I took a pencil and notepad and started asking what her order is.:D

Once Colleen got all her stuff through the window, she decided she was going to climb through instead of going around and walking through the door. Well...she didn't maneuver herself correctly and next thing you hear is RIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPP!!! Her right pant leg just ripped open. I believe she was wearing pink undies. The pictures will follow soon. :)

We head over to Applebee's for dinner, where to Lynette's surprise, a friend of hers from San Diego is sitting at another table. She happened to be there on a business trip. Such a small world I tell ya.

After drinks, dinner and lots of laughs, we head back to the hotel for poker and beer. Since I didn't have my cowboy hat, I pulled out my collapsible HD hat. That thing was so smashed that I doubt I'll ever be able to get it's shape back. It looked like a fedora. All I needed was a feather and I could just start pimpin'.

We decided that we would have to call each other by our biker names or we'd have to take a drink. You can guess, we were drinking alot. LOL!

Anita - Mighty Mouse
Lilia - Sassy Ass
Lynette - Rockabilly
Colleen - Bam Bam
Becky - Baby
Me - Duct Tape

The next morning, Anita, Colleen, Lilia and Becky headed to the laundrymat to do laundry while I chilled out at the hotel. Went an had lunch across the way at Dairy Queen and waited on the girlz. We got on the road by 1pm.

We never did make it to the Dodge City Musuem but we were here and my hat was in Kaye's car.

Wasn't sure where we were going next but it would be Colorado. Becky & Colleen talked about a little town of Ouray, CO where they stayed at when they did their vacation to Sturgis last year and that was our next destination but we would be staying in Pueblo, CO for the first night!