Tuesday 26th August.

I thought I’d had this jet-lag body-clock thing beat after last night; but nah. Into bed about 9:30 – 10:00…only to be still awake at 4:00 am. And awake again at 7:00 when the alarm went off.
Shakespeare said it: “Sleep, precious sleep; that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care!” or: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”
It’s 25 – 30 years since I last read ‘The Collected Works’, but some quotes stick in your mind.
Anyway…in to Perry the Kumback Kafe (sic) for a quick (not, as it turned out,) bite to eat before meeting with Dick and Susie again for a visit to the Chokosaw Cultural Heritage Museum.
Marilee was serving at the front counter when I walked in, ignored her customer and exclaimed: “New Zealand has arrived! Come in, come in, find a table, I’ll be with you in a minute, Marilynn’s here already!”
So we found a table, ordered breakfast, were soon joined by Marilynn, and spent a happy twenty minutes or so playing catchup before Marilee could get a break, pull up a chair, and join us.
“So that’s where that candy came from! I saw it on my desk this morning, there was no covering note, and it had me wondering!”
Fine people.
We spent a very happy hour or more with them catching up and reminiscing. Rosie had brought some necklaces with pendants inlaid with paua (the NZ abalone,) some time back, and had said at the time “The girls at the Kumback would enjoy these,” and they did too,
They didn’t know we were coming, my Ramblings from Rahotu are sent to Marilynn every month; but somehow she never got last month’s…dunno how that happened.
They’re not on this computer, so will send her a copy when we get back home.
(It seems she prints them off, and they are read to all the Kumback Koffee Klub girls... and to top it all off Marilee wouldn’t let us pay for our meal…thank-you very much for that; it is appreciated.)

Okay…away again, met with Dick and Susie, who drove us to the Chokosaw (pronounced with an acute accent on every vowel,) Indians’ Cultural Heritage Museum up near a town called Sulphur.
It was alright I s’pose in its way…but terribly biased to ‘show’ just how peaceful, industrious, and righteous they were.
Yeah right.
The idea of the ‘noble savage’ of days gone by are a myth; and always have been. They were every bit as venal as the people they were dealing with…it’s an undeniable irrefutable fact that they were selling their fellow Indians as slaves to the Spaniards.
I saw no mention of that awkwardness though…

Then off to the waterfall dubbed ‘Little Niagara’ at Sulphur itself,
It seems its major claim to fame is that it was in a ‘Terminator’ movie,
And Dick stripped down to his shorts and dived from the top!
I didn’t think you would mate!
Good on ya!

Back to Perry and the motel, final goodbyes to Dick and Susie, we won’t be seeing you for another two years at least; so think of us often and fondly, as we will of you lovable daft buggers.

Okay…now for the serious stuff…I/m not going to have a repeat of last night’s sleepless night…so I cracked the top on my rum bottle and drank several really stiff ones.
I got interrupted by a couple of earthquakes…but that didn’t faze me: I was determined I was going to sleep!
And I did.
Nine hours solid.
All good.

Wednesday 27th August.

Away by 8:15, ultimate destination Springfield.
Lunch was a Subway at Coffeeville…I nudged Rick, nodded towards a couple and said “That’s what happens when you marry your cousin.”
Umm…yeah…

And…just outside Baxter Springs…acre upon acre of yellow flowering ragwort!
Unbelievable.

We had arranged to meet up en route with Ken Thomas, a fellow Club Hot Rod member, at the intersection of 39 and 96; from where he would lead us to an untouched portion of the original Route 66.
And he did.
We would never have found it unaided…Paris Springs…old Route 66 itself…glass bowled fuel pumps, a couple of Corvairs, early fifties Nash police car…bloody gorgeous.
Thanks Ken…much appreciated.

And onwards to crash at a motel on the outskirts of Springfield.
All good.