She's In Missouri: The Show Me State

 Marlee and her family lived in a small town, but had a large family. Her family loved to go camping and sometimes they would all get together along with friends and camp by a lake. Some of her family she didn't know very well, but they were all having a good time. They were eating hamburgers and hotdogs and at night they even had s'mores. Oh how she loved s'mores. They had finished eating and the grownups were cleaning up their campsite and visiting back and forth. Marlee was watching a young woman having an absolute fit trying to park her camper in her camping place. She would back up and go forwards, then she would get out and even kick her tires! "Oops, I think she is mad. Hey, Kaysyn! Look at that girl over there. She's have a terrible time parking her camper. Do you think we should tell my dad?" Soon her whole family was watching. Before Marlee's dad got up to go over and help her it looked like the girl had given up for the evening. "I think she gave up and went to sleep, Kaysyn said,  I'll go over in the morning. Maybe she would like to come over and have breakfast with us. She's all alone. I wouldn't like that." Marlee agreed and climbed down from the tree that had been the perfect watch tower.

It seemed like Aaliyah had no sooner gone to sleep when she heard a tapping noise on her window. When she looked out the window there was a man knocking on her window. He had a ranger uniform on. Oh how her neck and back hurt. She must have been asleep longer than she thought. She rolled down her window and said, "What do you want? It's the middle of the night and I haven't done anything wrong."

The man said, "Well actually you did and are. You didn't pay when you came into the park and you are parked crossways. You can't do that. You are blocking traffic. You will need to pay me fifty-five dollars for the night. You must get your camper parked the right way as soon as possible or you will have to leave. If you don't you will be towed out. That will cost you at least two hundred dollars. The check out time is at three o'clock this afternoon. If you don't leave, you will have to pay another fifty-five dollars. I will wait for you to give me the money then I will give you a receipt so the next ranger doesn't charge you again."

Aaliyah got out of her Jeep and said, "No way! I don't have any money." Then she remembered the envelope in the glove box. She opened up the door and found the envelope. There was only two hundred dollars in there. That money had to buy gas and food until she got to an ATM for more. She tried to negotiate with the ranger, but he said rules were rules and they were made for many good reasons. She needed to pay or he would give her a ticket and she would have to go to court before a judge. Well, she wasn't going to do that so she carefully counted out fifty-five dollars and told the ranger that she would be out before three o'clock. She didn't have a clue how she was going to get her camper out, but she was sure going to try. "This camping thing is not my cup of tea. I think that Uncle Bill of mine should have had me stay in motels," she grumbled.

It wasn't long before Aaliyah had yet another visitor; a little girl. "Hi there! What's your name? My name is Kaysyn. You're a bad driver aren't you? Ever go campin' before? Marlee said her dad would help you get this thing straight. My gigi says it's cockeyed and you need some help. You want to come over for breakfast? What's your name again? Why you got that old stuffed toy? Aren't you too big for toys? Come on let's eat. Why are you by yourself? Are you hungry? We got all kinds of food. Come on let's get up there before it's all gone. Fresh air makes you hungry. That's what everybody says anyway. Do you even know where you are? You are in Missouri now. It's a good state. They call it the Show Me State 'cause people here have good sense. Yup, so we could spot you right away. You could stay if you want to. Where you goin' anyway?"

After doing some thinking and listening to her stomach growl, Aaliyah followed her new inquisitive little friend up the hill without saying much.  She soon found out that she was right. There was all kinds of food and friendly faces. Many of them asked the same questions that Kaysyn had asked, but she grinned and answered some but not all of their questions. Soon after breakfast Marlee's dad got her camper and Jeep moved. As Aaliyah watched she just shook her head. He made it look so easy.

 Soon she was on her way to Texas. She had to find a gas station and an ATM pretty soon. She only had a little less than half a tank of gas. It seemed like her new wheels used a lot of gasoline. She had looked on the map and it was 1001 miles from Springfield, Illinois to San Antonio, Texas. "And one mile. Who cares about the one mile? I'm not going that far anyway, so I should be there by tomorrow night. I will be so glad to have a home of my own that no one can evict me from. A ranch; think of that, Stuffy. A ranch all of our own. It looks like we are going to see Oklahoma on the way. That will be fun. I have never been there. Of course, I haven't been anywhere except Illinois. Okay, here we go."