Bye "Dunkin Donuts Lattes", Hello "Sonic Cherry Limeades"

Driving from Memphis to Oklahoma went smooth, Gil and Deborah chatted the whole way, made me laugh and kept me awake, not to mention a whole group of friends who were keeping up with us via facebook and sending messages of encouragement with each state line conquered in the middle of the night, I will tell you, traveling in the age of facebook and smart phones is a whole new experience, a good one for sure.
It used to be that the further we got from New England the harder it was to find good coffee, I mean, that is a matter of taste, I know, but in Gil's eyes, good coffee means coffee extracted from an ESPRESSO maker period, Cappuccino, Latte whatever, it has to be made from Espresso, we are big city people, not snobs, we need our real coffee, we had always called the typical American coffee, dirty water, until we started traveling away from the east coast and had no options for coffee but the good ol'dirty watered down coffee served on road side cafes across America, it was definitely another level of getting acquainted with our new country's culture.
However, back on the east coast, all Dunkin Donuts have had Espresso makers for many years now, however as you get west of Pennsylvania it gets harder to find our favorite beloved Dunkin Donuts.

My so loved New England addiction



The best thing to happen in Massachusetts since Boston Harbor's Tea Party


And we would like to take this moment to thank our Sweet Baby Jesus for the best news for travelers in America since the invention of Highways, ALL MC DONALD'S in the US have ESPRESSO MAKERS, ( not yet in Canada as we later found out)  from sea to shining sea, from California to the New York Island, you will now find and enjoy your lattes and Cappuccinos made the right way with powerful espresso makers. There is a God!   :)




Now from California to the New York Island from sea to shining sea  :)


Dunkin Donuts is always our first choice but they get scarce somewhere in Ohio. Starbucks is horrible and expensive, so it is our last resort. McDonald's new line of coffees is just right and you can find it everywhere.
We are familiar with most of the speed traps along this route, we learned the hard way over the years and they start at the Oklahoma state line, if you are driving on I-40 in Missouri the speed limit is 75mph, as soon as you hit the Oklahoma state line the speed limit drops to 65mph and there is a Police cruiser hiding behind a road sign, just like you have seen in the movies hundreds of times. You really need to pay attention at your speeds in Oklahoma, as well as Florida for that matter, but that is subject for a whole other post.
One thing I have always loved when I crossed the Oklahoma state line is finding a Sonic every mile, ok, not every mile, mile, but they are everywhere and where I can find a Sonic I can find Cherry Limeades and Tater Tots...not exactly a healthy food, but it reminds me of my High School days and it's in my opinion one of life's simple delicious pleasures.

Sonic Cherry Limeade



Sonic Tater Tots


In New England for some strange DMA (Designated Market Areas) mishap they advertise the hell out Sonic but you can't find one within 750 miles from Boston, it drives me crazy to see Cherry Limeades and Tater Tots on TV everyday knowing there are no Sonics around here!
Back to our driving, our mother made asked us to give trip updates via Facebook often, our parents have always made us keep in touch often.
We always felt protected when our parents know where we are, sometimes we called and all laughed together on the speaker phone, we really love our mother and wish she was healthy enough to enjoy these moments on the road with us, facebook and skype is keeping us close for now and we are thankful for that.
The next few days we did what we always do in Oklahoma, we enjoyed family and friends, we ate delicious home cooked meals, visited some great friends from my high school days, drove our obnoxiously large 4X4 SUV on some awesome trails and into creeks, we had a great time.
Many friends invited us over for barbecue or just to sit by the fire and drink beers, eat pizza and remember stories from our High School days, Gil and Deborah learned a lot of fun stuff even I had forgotten about those days when we all used to drink ... a lot...and do silly things only 18 year olds can do.
Deborah drove a combine and harvested wheat and had a blast!
Yeap, the girl who rides the subway to work everyday, enjoys wearing MAC and L'Occitane took off her high heels and climbed up on a combine to harvest wheat. She drove it for about a whole hour at sunset and took some amazing pictures of the wheat fields, the mountains and the sunset.
Gil and I picked ripe apricots and plums from our friends orchards, we made homemade jelly and learned all about canning it so we could bring it home to New England.
We never tasted apricots that good, I had known Oklahoma wild plums for a long time, but I didn't remember how fresh Apricots could taste so good.
Gil would sit under the apricot trees with a book and eat fresh apricot and read for hours, we would completely forget about him...he loves to go stealth sometimes, it's his so needed alone time.
Deborah panicked for a couple hours when she realized her cell phone and laptop had no signal, but she relaxed and went with the flow when we got her hooked up via land line at the farm, she is not paranoid but she was running her business via cell phone and laptop the whole trip so her managers could contact her if they had any troubles back in Sao Paulo.
Yeah, you can get Espresso coffee in far Western Oklahoma but God forbid you need your 3G network to have any signal, good luck.
That reminded me that when we were kids and went on vacations, our father would be completely OUT of touch with his work, no contacts with the office what-so-ever...no Blackberries or cell phones in the 70's and  80's, there were advantages and disadvantages to the way things were in my opinion.
The main advantage was that our father would completely change his mood for the better as the vacation progressed, he was 100% there with us, no interruptions.

Today, we have technology on our side with all the interruptions, however, we can take more vacations  because we can manage our businesses from a distance in great details and we learned how to multitask, well, some of us did.
I was amazed to find out dentists were emailing Deborah patients x-ray's and she would be able to analyse them and write reports and email them back quickly so the work never stopped in her Sao Paulo clinic just because she was away having fun in the plains west of the Mississippi, all happening in real time.
We would continue about our vacation day without a glitch, you gotta love technology, it will free you if you put it to work for you!