"Is that for here or to go?" the cheerful clerk at the spic 'n span McDonald's in Guymon, Oklahoma asked Stan.
Traveling diagonally across the Great Plains, there are no rest areas, most establishments are questionable, so we find the Golden Arches a reliable friend with their clean rest rooms and sometimes even grassy areas for Birdie.
"Make it to go, she's outside with the dog," Stan responded.
"What kind of dog do you have," the more mature than usual gentleman clerk asked.
"A poodle. She's on her way back to Minnesota."
The clerk seemed interested so Stan continued:
"Yeah, we've been staying in Phoenix, and Super Bowl week was just getting started. We were having a lot of fun doing stuff, but my dear mother died and we are going back to Minnesota. The funeral is on Saturday so now we're driving across country, and hope to be there by Wednesday night. She died yesterday morning."
A nice young man waiting in a line beside Stan had overheard the conversation and now joined in:
"What," he asked earnestly, "are you doing with your Super Bowl tickets?"
