What A Trip!

Holy Moly...........what a long drive down the road it was. Through Maryland..........and all the way down I-81 in Virginia to Tennessee. All the way across I-40 through Tennessee. Through Memphis into Arkansas. Through Arkansas....Little Rock.......and Texarkana. Then down through Texas......Dallas......Waco......and finally Leander.

That was alot of driving........and way more than I would want to do these days. Somehow, I felt good and had no problem driving 12 hours at a clip. We drove from Baltimore to just north of Memphis .......about 12-13 hours.....where we stopped for the night. The roads were good, traffic was moving well and everything was good.

The next morning we headed through Memphis and into Arkansas. Arrrgggghhh........we stopped at a welcome center for a break and was told by the host there that we would be just outside of Little Rock about lunchtime...........so she recommended that we stop at a place called Brown's. She said "Brown's has great food and is the best buffet in Arkansas". Okay......sounds good.....we will do that...........................hmmm........I should stop being so easily convinced of things.

Let's just say that if Brown's is the best food buffet in Arkansas......then there will never be any need to ever stop anywhere again while driving through that State. After eating at Brown's, I now have no desire to ever stop in Arkansas again......except for gasoline. I would like to think that I know a bit about smorgasbords............I managed one in Merritt Island, Florida.....many moons ago...........and this "buffet" was disgusting...........then again........perhaps the folks in Arkansas think it is a step up from everything else in Arkansas. Well......the food "was" edible.......I didn't cough it all up later...........the food line was not particularly the most sanitary operation.............and the people.....locals and tourists acted like they never saw food before. What a big mistake this was........we couldn't wait to get back on the road. Here is just an observation for you..............apparently there is alot of inbreeding going on in Arkansas. West Virginia ain't got nuthin' on Arkansas........this is inbreeding to the tenth power.

Arkansas spawned two Governors...............Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee...........both ran for President of the US............I remember hearing that Clinton left the Arkansas governor's residence in such a shambles that when Huckabee was elected he had to stay in a trailer on the property while everything was fixed back up. I believe it. This stop in Arkansas has made quite an impression on me.........and really puts certain stuff into perspective. Today, if you say Clinton.......or even Hilary........I will have to think "Arkansas"!...............Arrrrrgghhh!

The drive through Texas was good and went smoothly. Dallas was quite a sight.......very beautiful skyline...........the only somewhat unnerving moment came was when we stopped for gas, south of Dallas......maybe near Killeen........the tank was about empty and I couldn't keep going down the road to look for a place that appeared populated.........so I headed onto an off ramp towards a lone gas sign on a pole that had a banner attatched that said "Now Open!".

The gas station was the only thing in the area...........except for the truck trailer sitting on the parking lot. The trailer had a wooden deck and steps!.........it was converted to some sort of church type operation. Holy evangelism! No need to go there.........I pumped my gas, went inside to pay, and encountered the female clerk at the register..........and she looked like she had some kind of horns growing on her forehead. This was like an Outer Limits episode.......or maybe I had stepped into the Twilight Zone. The woman was very nice. Supernurse hadn't seen anything like that before.........all she could say to me after we got back into our van was "She had nice makeup on those things sticking out of her head". I figured that there were alot of crops in that area......farmland.........and just maybe the woman suffered from contamination from crop dusting or some other kind of environmental hazard.

After a few more hours, finally, we arrived in Leander at our daughter Noodle's home.

There is more to tell........stay tuned!