So, we are now back from an over-night road trip to IKEA. The 'mercan had never been there before, the Brit loves her IKEA furniture, and I am as you may know Swedish, so, we had to get the 'mercan there. Unfortunately the closest IKEA store is 350 miles away, a 6 hours drive.

The rented pickup truck was available from noon, but slowpokes as we are we left the house around 1 pm. We drove and we drove, and we photographed and we filmed, and we drank coke and we ate beef jerky, and we made fun of weird place names, and we kept a roadkill tally. In Oklahoma there were plenty of American Indian names, like Chekotah and Eufala and Choctaw. Eufala Lake was huge and beautiful.

There's an insane amount of roadkill in this country. Back home we use big fences so that animals won't wander off onto the highway, which makes roadkill a rare sight.

THE COP

We also kept a tally of incidents with sirens. Saw a fire truck heading somewhere, and saw a couple of cars pulled over by the police. The most awesome incident was the 5th, which happened to be ours - we got pulled over in Oklahoma. Apparently the 'mercan was speeding through a small town (interstate went from speed limit 70mph / 110kmph to a sudden 45mph / 70kmph, and big pickup trucks don't listen to the breaks like normal cars do). So the cop asked for drivers license and noticed that our 'mercan have a drivers license from the state he used to live in, but not a license for Arkansas. He got suspicious and asked the 'mercan to step out of the vehicle, and after that I couldn't hear what they said anymore. We saw the cop searching the 'mercan, and started getting a little worried - neither of us girls can drive, so we didn't feel like being stranded in Oklahoma on our own.

Apparently they have issues with people transporting narcotics between states, and they thought `Zikes was a transporter. The story of how we were heading to IKEA (newly bought and empty house, Swede in the car) seems to be what saved him. Yay!


THE HOTEL

We kept on driving, and finally reached Texas. About an hour from IKEA we started looking for hotels, to spend the night and then go shopping in the morning. We found a hotel around 7 o'clock and got three rooms. They didn't have wifi anywhere except in the lobby, so we had to go get some ethernet cables, and we were also a bit hungry. Bought the cables at Best Buy, and then we had dinner at Taco Bell. Yay, tacos! Tacos good. I wish we had a taco restaurant at home. Back at the hotel we played billiard/pool for quite some time, enough for us all to win a game at least once, but I must say that the Brit definitely kicked our butts.

The hotel pretty much sucked in general. There was a coffee maker in every room, I tried making tea in it but the tea tasted of coffee so I was quite disappointed. Each and every room had a modem for internet, and the modem in my room didn't have a power cable. Since the 'mercan can be online with his fancy Blackberry phone I borrowed the power cable from his modem. Once online I got this stupid firewall 404 wherever I tried to go, including deviantart, so I tweeted my g'night and went to bed. Huge bed. I really just uncovered a corner of it and crawled inside.

I now understand why Americans call them blankets. The thing you cover yourself with when in bed. That's because here in the crazy land, they really use blankets. Just blankets.

Woke up around 8 am because people were walking in the hallway.. Snoozed until 8:40. Got dressed and packed the computer. We were to meet in `Zikes' room at 9, so I sat on a chair just waiting for a while. Boring. Knocked on his door around 8:50, waited for a looong time and eventually he opened the door. So I sat down in his chair instead, waiting for the Brit. Apparently I woke him up. The alarm clocks at the hotel were all wrong, mine was an hour late, and it seems both `Zikes' and `brokenboulevard's clocks were 12 hours off.

Packed our stuff, left the keys, mentioned the missing power cable, and took off south towards Dallas, TX.

IKEA

The parking lot was eerily empty at 10:15 when we reached the store. If it hadn't been so empty I might've felt at home, the building looked just like any other IKEA. Big and blue. I wore my yellow top saying "Swedish" in blue letters. I wonder how many people noticed. I also wonder how many overheard me translating stuff for `Zikes and `brokenboulevard.

We had breakfast in the cafeteria. I ordered what they called a "regular" breakfast, `Zikes got some Swedish pancakes, and `brokenboulevard got a crazy looking waffle. The regular breakfast was not regular to me, it tasted very American (sugary and sweet). I bought myself a pack of Ballerina cookies though, so I was all happy.

I don't know if they've changed the range world-wide since I was at IKEA last month, or if the range varies between warehouses. All I know is that I saw new stuff here (jeans couches!) and there were stuff missing (green Lack!).

The Swedish Food Market just outside of the cashiers was a disappointment. It was not much of a food market at all, but a candy store. I picked up some Ahlgrens Bilar, some Marabou Schweizernöt, some Daim, Havreflarn cookies (with and without chocolate), and possibly more. They didn't have the vegetarian pizza slices I love, nor did they have my favorite Grillkrydda spices in the spices section.

`brokenboulevard gave us all a scare when we were about to leave the store. Her phone was nowhere to be found. We asked the staff if they'd seen it. We called and called and called, hoping to hear it. We went back into the store and started retracing our steps, starting with the cafeteria where we had breakfast, still calling the phone hoping to hear it. After a while, someone picked up the phone - it was IKEA's Lost and Found section. Awesome.

As I already mentioned, we got to IKEA at 10:15. We left onto the highway, all packed, around 3:30 pm. It's amazing how easy it is to pack IKEA boxes. I never thought the stuff would fit in the pickup truck, but it fit perfectly. While us girls were waiting with all the stuff and `Zikes headed to get the truck closer, a woman asked us "are you going to build all of that?". That was a fun conversation.

THE RESULT

GUSTAV Computer Desk
LACK Coffee Table
LACK Side Table ( x2 )
LACK Bookcase
BILLY Bookcase
BJURSTA Dining Table
STEFAN Chair ( x4 )
MALM Bed Frame, Queen Size
GODMORGON Bathroom Mirror Cabinet

Plus two Blue Bags of small stuff.

All furnitures in black.

Total cost: $1,800

BACK TO ARKANSAS

The way back was quite uneventful. I almost have my voice back though, so I was very talkative. Might have been that I was in the front seat too. All the way down south I sat in the back, and on the way back north I called the front. We had dinner at a Sonic restaurant, which is not only a Drive-Thru but also a Drive-In. It looks funny, cars parking next to a menu, and then staying next to that menu until they're done eating. Too bad the food and service wasn't very good. Like the Brit said, it sure was an experience but let's hope it was a once-in-a-lifetime one.

We got back home around 10 pm, built a few small things (chairs and LACK tables), watched The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and then went to sleep.