I can barely remember this morning to know where to start this post. Every day here seems the equivalent of 2 or 3 at home, as we seem to be packing so much in!

We woke up to the sound of the Harley's leaving this morning at around 7am so no need for an alarm. After yesterday's late start we wanted to get going a bit earlier so got ready, Claire did a circuit and then we went to get our breakfast from the diner. These free breakfasts are great and about the only place we see a fruit or vegetable (that's not deep fried anyway).

It poured with rain as we left Springfield at 8.45, slightly later than planned. There were severe weather warnings on the news but it looked like our route skipped the worst of the weather and it didn't rain for too long, although the sun didn't shine once today. Before we came away I told Claire that I was going to work out what to do in a tornado / thunderstorm and we laughed but I didn't ever check and did regret it today. Luckily no storms and no tornados today.

We stopped off to take photos on the main sights as we left Springfield, including a mosaic and Mater, parked on the side of the road (not the real one though - see later on). Soon after we passed through Hall Town, total population 173. Some of the towns we drive through are so small. We can't work out where these people buy their food or get supplies from because there is nothing around for miles and miles. Speaking of food, we have been trying really hard to eat as well as possible over here but outside of sizeable cities it has been really difficult. There are fast food joints in every town but very little else. We have only seen about 5 supermarkets the whole time we've been here and the places we have been in have zero fresh food, just junk. Often the best we can find is Subway, where at least you can add in salad. I'm looking forward to heading west for (hopefully) better food.

Back to our road trip - Hall Town was also the place of our first road kill - a squirrel. We were lucky because the total was almost three today as a bird and a tortoise both had near misses.

Outside Springfield, the Gay Parita service station in Paris Springs was our first stop. This crazy little service station was full of character! Next stop was Avilla, where we parked up to walk around the town square. The Jasper County Courthouse dominated, a place that was centre of the conflict during the civil war. Around the market square were various cute shops and cafés, mostly selling antiques.

Joplin was the last stop in Missouri. Here we had a look around the high street and then grabbed a subway for lunch and went to Wallgreens in search of some snacks. Claim to fame here are artefacts stolen by Bonnie and Clyde.

Other things of note in Missouri were a roundabout - very rare here, we've only seen four - and our favourite radio station - KGBX. So far our favourite stations have been Fresh, Sunny, KGBX and Star. Who knows what it will be tomorrow!

After Joplin, we made our way into Kansas. We only travelled 13 miles through Kansas but it was one of the highlights of our trip so far. First stop was Galena, inspiration for Tow Matar from Cars. We got a friendly welcome from the lady in charge who explained the history and how Disney picked the car. We even got to go in the truck for a photo! Following this, Kansas continued to be great. Lovely towns and shops, everyone was so friendly and waved. Final stop was Baxter and a museum on local American history, in particular the civil war. It was informative and considering it was free, very good.

After a short drive we left Kansas, with lots of 'I don't think we're in Kansas anymore' jokes and entered Oklahoma. We still had a long drive to go and compared to the other states we had travelled through there was not a lot to see. We did stop off to see the world's largest totem pole in Foyil and a giant whale in Catoose. We bypassed Tulsa but spotted the main sights as we went and kept driving.

About half an hour out of Tulsa we thought we must almost be in Oklahoma City, perhaps 20-30 miles to go, and we passed a sign saying another 98 miles. This meant 2-3 hours of driving to go and our hearts sank a little bit, but we kept going and made it here just after 9pm.

I'm sure I've missed half the day out but my eyes won't stay open so I may fill the gaps elsewhere.

Amarillo, Texas tomorrow.

Day: 5

Total miles driven: 953

States crossed: 3.5

Licence plates checked: 19

Road kill: 1

Today's licence plates were Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.