Day 4: Oklahoma!

States covered: MO, Missourah, Kansas, Oklahoma
Miles so far: 1612.7
Song of the day: Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin (in honor of Joplin, Oklahoma)
Don't Stop Me Now playcount: 8

Running on 5 hours of sleep, we hopped out of bed in St. Louis and got on the road for Norman, Oklahoma. Why Norman, you ask? Well, we didn't know anyone between St. Louis and Santa Fe and Norman happened to be right on route. We looked on Couchsurfing, a website that unites people offering couches around the world with people traveling and in need of free housing, for something near Oklahoma City. There, we found Mick, a student at Oklahoma University who offered us his two extremely comfortable couches in front of a luxuriously large HD tv.

Before we reached those comfy couches, though, we had eight hours of driving to do. We left Missouri and entered Missourah, real midwestern farmland style. We bought peaches from "the peach capital of Missourah" which were scrumptious. Then, right before entering Oklahoma, we made a quick detour into Kansas. Sadly, it wasn't as flat as we'd hoped but we only went about a half mile in. But when else will we go to Kansas?
As soon as we entered Oklahoma, glorious strains from the hit musical "Oklahoma!" filled our ears.
It wasn't long before that got old, though, so we had to find other diversions. Like the Largest Rocking Chair in the World. It was indeed large but slightly disappointing because it doesn't rock and people aren't allowed to sit in it.
We arrived at our destination at 9:30 p.m. and were welcomed by Mick and his roommates Tom and Scott. Stirfry was on the stove and Wall-E on the television: heavenly. They are all outdoorsy guys from Oklahoma; the next day, Tom and Scott woke up early to go waterskiing and Mick went backpacking in southwest Arkansas. Great initiation into Couchsurfing—thanks guys. We ended the evening relaxing on the couches, talking about camping and traveling, and watching "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," a cinematic masterpiece. Since we all had big days ahead of us, we enjoyed the low-key evening and went to sleep relatively early. Exactly the way we wanted our night to go.