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Un-Pimp My Ride

First of all a great big THANK YOU to Thom and Jose from Thom s Four Wheel Drive on Pulaski in Chicago. Starting off a road trip with car trouble can be very discouraging but these two guys went above and beyond to make sure we were able to get on the road safely and as soon as possible. They definitely made an awful situation a little more bearable.

A little back story: Lisa bought a pre-pimped Honda Civic named Lola to make the big move out to AZ. The original owners had put 17 inch rims on her and lowered the suspension. (They also painted her an indescribable shade of purple but that s neither here nor there.) Unfortunately once Lisa loaded poor Lola up the tires were scraping against the wheel well. She immediately called Thom and we went to his shop at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. One of Thom s mechanics Jose also has a Honda Civic. He had taken the factory wheels off his car and offered to sell to Lisa for $25 each. He even agreed to get up at 6:00 am on Saturday to install them.

Even though we had planned to leave Friday we figured this was the best and most cost effective solution. After enjoying an evening of margaritas Mexican food and great conversation with some Chicago firefighters (yay 3rdshift!) we headed over to Jose s house at 6:00. As it turns out Lola s original owners also replaced her calipers so the factory wheels would not fit. Lisa and I immediately lost hope and figured there was absolutely no chance that we would make it to Oklahoma City Saturday night. Lucky for us Jose took the time to figure out exactly why the tires were scraping against the wheel well. He was able to whittle away at wheel well until there was enough clearance for the tire. Fifteen hours later than originally planned we were finally on the road.

Being that we had almost 800 miles to travel in one day we didn t have a whole lot of time for the random stops like we were hoping. We did find a gem in Cuba MO though. We originally pulled off the interstate because Lisa saw a sign for the World s Largest Rocker on Historic Route 66 (and let s face it who wouldn t go see that given the chance?). The rocker was obscured by trees so we missed it the first time we drove by. We weren t too disappointed though because Route 66 took us right into the town of Cuba. Cuba was a cute little town built right along the historic route with exactly all the little kitschy stuff Lisa was hoping for. We took quite a few pictures including the MO. Hick BBQ a Jesus King of the Road sign a Historic Route 66 sign and of course Lola in front of the World s Largest Rocker.

The last fun stop we made for the day was to see the World s Largest Fork. Well hidden in Springfield MO and standing at 35 feet it met all of our expectations. We stayed long enough to take a couple pictures and got right back on the road. We just crossed the Oklahoma state line and are hoping to be in OKC in a couple hours. Considering we ve completed almost half the entire trip in one day we re definitely looking forward to taking our time on the rest of the trip and will probably spend a good portion of it on the historic route instead of the interstate. Expect many more stories and pictures of some of the best tourist spots American has to offer!

Still getting our kicks

Ida and Lisa