The Great Drive, Day Four

[mabfan]

Sunday morning, Josh, Rachel, the kids and the cats woke up in St. Louis, Missouri, and they spent the day driving across the state. Even though Josh has driven across the country with Rachel once before, I think he's experiencing culture shock, given some of the photos he's sent me.

We'll start with this sign.

We're Not in NYC Anymore...

Rachel told me that they're assuming it's okay for customers to bring in their rifles, so long as they aren't concealed. (Although how does one conceal a rifle? The mind boggles.)

The highlight of today's drive for their oldest daughter, Emma, was when they made the decision to stop in the town of Emma, Missouri, population 243.

Emma Gets Her Own Post Office

I suspect that she'll return there one day and run for mayor.

When they got to their hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, they found this bus emptying itself of passengers.

Holy Bus, Batman

According to what I understood from Rachel, the tourists spotted Josh and thought he was there to give them directions. I'm not surprised, given that his name is Joshua, after all.

When Rachel called me tonight (well, given when I'm posting, maybe it was last night), Josh was at a Walmart, buying cat litter for the cats. This is how they've been spending most of the trip, so I'm not surprised that they needed more cat litter.

Get Me Out of Here!

Monday they're driving from Kansas City to Hays, Kansas. Hays may have only 20,000 residents, but their website and Wikipedia page suggest that they may have some interesting stuff to see while there. Assuming they have the time.

In the meantime, I should really try to get to sleep.

(Basic message repeats: Rachel is looking for a group with which to go see the new X-Files movie at the 10 pm showing on the night of Friday July 25 at the Eugene Valley River Center movie theater. She already has her ticket. Get in touch if you'd like to go see the movie with her.)

[Josh & Rachel's Trip Picture Gallery]

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting these reports - I am really enjoying them (apart from the twinges of envy!).

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

1. Is that a rifle in your pants, or...hey, no concealing weapons!
2. I'd feel sorry for the cats, but after the revelations about Romney, I think they should just be happy to be inside the car.

[silk-noir.livejournal.com]

1) I don't understand the perplexingness of the sign.

2) The things is Hays may be interesting only if you are a big fan of TransMississippi West history and agriculture. My bet is that y'all will find The Sternberg Museum more up your alley.

M, yr friendly KS native

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

1) In NYC, where Josh (and I) grew up, you never see a sign telling you not to bring concealed firearms into a store. It's just assumed that no one would have concealed firearms on them. (I think they're just illegal.) A sign such as that implies that it is legal for people to walk around outside with concealed firearms, and that people do.

[ericreynolds.livejournal.com]

Allowing concealed weapons, so-called right to carry, was just passed into law in Kansas a year or so ago (one of the last states to allow it) and so those signs have been popping up all over the place since then. It's a reaction to the new law.

[ruralwriter.livejournal.com]

And then in our state (Virginia) it's okay to carry, but you have to have a permit to conceal. I was at a restaurant the other night when a guy walked by with a handgun strapped to his belt. Yep.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Still, those signs probably aren't prevalent in Richmond, since that's where they were living for the past three years.

[prettypammie.livejournal.com]

Some people who have concealed carry permits in VA interpret the "no concealed carry where alcohol is served" as "you must open carry instesad". The group I used to shoot with rated restaurants by how firearms friendly they were - there were some occasions when the local police had to explain to a patron that they weren't violating a law and couldn't be arrested.
In my experience, the guy in the restaurant with the handgun on his belt is probably a law-abiding citizen. He's not who you want to worry about.

-Pam

[cellio]

The Chatanooga airport has (or at least had when I was there several years ago) a big sign on the outer door saying "no guns". (It's an airport. Duh...) On the inner door is a much, much smaller sign, "no smoking". Based on the amount of smoke I encountered on the trip, I infer that they were compelled to ban smoking and grudgingly put up a token sign. I don't imagine it was enforced (though I didn't see violations while I was in the airport).