We made it.

Astonishingly, we made it to Colorado Springs in one piece. We took the northern route passing through Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, and finally Colorado Springs.
We've always joked that we'd love to be BBQ critics. Little did we know Road Trip 2k9 would turn into just that. We had BBQ from two distinctly different (but equally fantastic) hole-in-the-wall joints. Sugar's Ribs in Chattanooga was more my style with 4 sweet sauces and the most amazing grilled okra I've ever tasted. I had the pulled pork which was exactly that--8 oz of pork that had fallen straight from the bone onto my plate. Thomas opted for the half rack of ribs, much more his style as he was able to gnaw the meat straight from the bone, with perfectly moist grilled cornbread sticks on the side. We left Sugar's entirely satisfied. Here is Thomas enjoying ribs:

We stayed the night in East St. Louis with folks we've met once. That's right. The Austin's have no fear when asking for free things, including a warm bed. Shane and Kristin are working in East St Louis with an inner-city ministry called Rebirth International, and were incredibly hospitable. (Jeannie--we slept in a double bed and had a GREAT night's rest. It is possible for a combined total of 450 lbs to sleep well. Anywhere.) We were encouraged hearing about their ministry and the things the Lord has done thus far.
The next morning we toured the Anheuser-Bush Brewery in downtown St. Louis, thoroughly enjoying the free beer at the end. We'd planned to visit the St. Louis Zoo, but it was raining so that didn't seem very attractive. Thomas mentioned the fact that we were a total of 12 hours from his sister's house in Colorado Springs. We both got a wild look in our eyes........
We were planning on spening Friday night in Ft. Leavenworth. Instead, we decided to leave St. Louis at 12 Central time, cramming down turkey sandwiches from our cooler. People kept calling us and telling us we were crazy. My brother related driving across Kansas to "4-5 hours of Purgatory." These things only spurred us onward.
Took a pit stop in Kansas City for more BBQ at Arthur Bryant's. The portions were colossal. It reminded me of The Beacon in Spartanburg. The man taking my order stressed me out as he stared me down and yelled "whaddya want?!" Meanwhile, Thomas chatted it up with the locals, finding out what he should order. He got smoked ham and beef briscuit. Piles and piles of it. Since I hadn't asked anyone what to order, I got a BBQ sandwich. I love sauce, but there was entirely too much on this for one sandwich. The homemade dill pickles and french fries made up for it. I had to drag Thomas away after he said he wanted ANOTHER sandwich. Look how much meat is on there!
Things were uneventful until I-70 began leveling out in western Kansas. We began playing this newlywed game we've never had time for. I was driving and lost track of my speed. I'm sort of notorious for my lead foot, and this was no exception. Thomas had mentioned this fact quite a few times throughout the last 300 miles, but we were having such a good time answering quiz questions, neither one of us saw the blue lights. The police officer waltzed up to my window. This was no ordinary police officer. Long story short, Thomas ended up sitting IN THE POLICE CAR with the officer, chatting about the best route to Colorado Springs. Meanwhile, I was doubled over with laughter in the Camry, confident this man was NOT giving me a ticket. Not so. Apparently this guy gets his kicks making people like me think they're off the hook, then slapping them with a $135 ticket and a "have a nice trip now will ya?" The only thing that negated this horrible human being was the fact that the cashier at our next gas stop gave us chewy SweetTarts. Free of charge. A surefire way to our hearts.
Thomas insisted we follow the horrible police officer's directions. He'd claimed it would cut 45 miles off of our trip, informing us that our GPS would "lie" to us and send us another way. Turns out, the police officer also gets his kicks from sending unsuspecting folks through parts of Kansas with literally no civilization. It reminded me of this scene from North by Northwest. No towns, no gas stations, no houses, no lights. Just land. Amazingly, we arrived at Keri and Micah's at 11:30 pm Friday night.