My trip to Tulsa. Part 2

...continued from the previous post

I have No Cash!

I will not lie, had I not been on the phone with Michelle, I would have cussed.

As I waited in a line of 3 or 4 cars, I dug for any and all money I could find. I checked my wallet first...12 pennies. Then I checked the bottom of my purse, but I had just switched to this smaller purse in anticipation of lots of shopping, and not needing to carry diapers and wipes with me. So, No Change. Did I search the floor of my car, you ask? No, because again, in anticipation of my wonderful trip, I had actually cleaned and vacuumed my car. Next came the change bucket, which was actually designed as a removable ash tray, but since we don't smoke, we use it for extra change. Now, 2 months ago this baby was filled to the brim with all sorts of monies...but now...not so much. See, my girls discovered it, and since then it usually only has a few coins in it. As I opened it, hoping against hope that it miraculously contained the $3.50 I needed for the toll, it's contents revealed themselves to me...

Zilch.

It was completely empty.

&%$#*%!

By this time I had gotten off the phone.

Surely they'll take a card, I mean, who doesn't take cards now?

I rolled forward to the toll booth, it was my turn.

Three dollars and fifty cents. The kindly lady stated.

And by kindly I mean, grumpy and not smiling.

Um, I just realized that I don't have any cash...do you take cards?

She rolled her eyes. She actually Rolled her Eyes!

No.

And then she just looked at me.

Um, well, I don't, I mean, I really don't...What do I do?

She stepped out of her booth and walked to the back of my car, without a word. She proceeded to write down my license plate number on a little slip of paper.

Oh my goodness, I'm going to jail.

OK, I didn't get hauled off, instead she handed me the paper, with instructions to pay up within 10 days. I drove away, shaking. I kept thinking, I know I'm not the only person who's ever done this...I mean, what about people who've never been through here before! She doesn't know that I've been through here dozens of times, and should KNOW to have cash!

I gotta tell you, I kept thinking of you, Alana, and how you'd have reacted! I mean, you're such a rule follower, and I'm not, and so if it shook me up, what would it have done to you!

So on I drove, and as the miles widened between me and the cheerful tool booth lady, I started to feel better.

I'll get some cash as soon as I get to Tulsa.

My mother called, and I related the whole crazy story to her, as I sped along...then I started to get an uneasy feeling...something didn't look right...and then I saw it...up ahead...a sign...

Pay Toll Ahead.

Oh you have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

%$&%!

No one was in front of me this time, and I already knew I only had 12 pennies, so up I rolled to the booth, ready to receive another slip of paper.

What the...?

There was no one in the booth. Only a sign. It read...Deposit $.75 in automatic receptacle ahead.

For a brief moment I thought maybe my 12 pennies had mated and produced 63 babies...and then I realized that the automatic receptacle only accepted nickles, dimes, and quarters of which I had None, so it really didn't matter if my pennies had multiplied.

I sat alone... in the dark... somewhere in Oklahoma... lost... with no money... at a toll booth... with no operator...

cue scary music please...

to be continued...