Read Online The Genius Files #4 by Dan Gutman - Free Book Online Page B

tie machine!” Coke proclaimed proudly. He had learned this while Googling “American inventions.”
    â€œIs that so?” said his father.
    After all these years, he never ceased to be impressed by the amount of seemingly worthless information his son could hold in his head. It was as though Coke’s brain was a hard drive with unlimited gigabyte storage, and nothing ever got deleted.
    Outside, one of the prettiest parts of Oklahoma was passing by. They don’t call it the Talimena Scenic Drive for nothing. The road winds fifty-four spectacular miles along the mountaintops, with lush green forests, meadows full of wildflowers, and a smoky blue haze in the distance. The McDonalds were craning their necks in all directions to take in the scenery.
    â€œLook! A bear!” Pep shouted suddenly.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œOver there!”
    And so it was. A black bear on the right side of the road gamboled off into the woods.
    It was past three o’clock now, which meant it was time to start thinking about a place to stop for the night. When they had the RV, they were able to just pull over into any parking lot, if necessary, to sleep. Ferraris are fine cars, but you’ll never hear people say they want to sleep in one. Certainly not a family of four. And not with bears around.
    Mrs. McDonald dropped her Arkansas guidebook into the trash bag and pulled out Oklahoma Off the Beaten Path . She discovered that Poteau, an old coal-mining town, was only a half hour away. The guidebook said there were three hotels there, so Mrs. McDonald called on her cell phone and made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express. She punched the address into the GPS and leafed through her guidebook to find out if there was anything in the area worth seeing.
    â€œHey, you won’t believe this!” she blurted out. “The world’s highest hill is in Poteau. It’s called Cavanal Hill.”
    â€œNo kidding?” said Dr. McDonald.
    â€œNever heard of it,” said Coke.
    â€œI thought Mount Everest was the highest,” said Pep.
    Intrigued, the family agreed to stop by Cavanal Hill before checking into the hotel for the night. A few miles west and slightly north of town, it wasn’t hard to find.
    â€œWait a minute,” Coke said as he got out of the car. “This mountain doesn’t look all that high. How can they say it’s the highest one in the world?”
    â€œIt’s not a mountain,” a tall guy with a fancy bike in the parking lot told him. “It’s a hill .”
    â€œWhat’s the difference?” Pep asked.
    â€œA mountain has to be at least two thousand feet high,” the guy explained. “Anything less than that is a hill.”
    â€œAnd how high is this hill?” asked Dr. McDonald.
    â€œOne thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine feet,” the guy replied.
    â€œYou mean to say that if Cavanal Hill was just one foot higher it would be the world’s shortest mountain?” asked Mrs. McDonald. “But because of some dumb rule it’s the world’s highest hill?”
    â€œYou got it,” said the guy with the bike.
    â€œThat’s bogus!” shouted Coke. “This place is a rip-off!”
    â€œIt can’t be a rip-off,” Pep told him. “It doesn’t cost anything.”
    â€œI don’t care,” Coke said. “It’s still a rip-off. It’s false advertising.”
    â€œThere’s no ad either!” Pep said.
    â€œI’ll tell you what it is,” Mrs. McDonald said, reaching for her notepad. “It’s perfect for Amazing but True. My readers will love this.”
    While Cavanal is no Everest, the tree-covered hill draws hikers, bikers, and runners from all over who want to climb it. In fact, the hike to the top is called “the Cavanal Killer.” The nickname alone made Coke and Pep want to reach the summit.
    â€œYou kids go on ahead,” said Dr. McDonald.