This
is the only picture that we took while in the state of Arkansas...the
only one worth taking. And hey...if you're from Arkansas
and you are reading this, before you write to me and cuss me out for saying
something about the 'hell portion' of the United States, why don't you
first try pulling a 21 foot camper across your own interstate roads and THEN
tell me how you feel....
The only good road we saw and experienced
while in this state...from end to end...was right here on this bridge. As soon
as the bridge ended, so did the half-decent road. The rest of the entire trip
across this horrible state was spent being 'beat to death' by the
bumpy roads they insist on having. What a nightmare.
Of all the driving we did
in eleven days, this day was the single most exhausting. We were worn out. Then,
to add insult to injury, the road construction (ironic, isn't it?) was
everywhere, yet nothing ever improved. And it was in this state that we started
to experience the bad head winds. There were traffic jams galore. No other
traffic jam we encountered on this trip could hold a candle to this place.
Awful!
You know, in the Carolinas they do the road construction at night....that
way it's cooler, there is less traffic, and they don't hold up everyone on rush
hour...everything runs a little smoother. But not these folks...they jam
everyone up on a Friday afternoon...school's out, people are trying to get home,
and it's stand-still traffic.
It was also in this state that we stopped
for coffee at a place that SELLS coffee, and the gum-cracking teen-ager merely
blinked and said that they didn't have any coffee right now. Not even attempting
to make any. So, we had to go somewhere else to buy coffee.
At this point we decided....as God was our
witness...with a fist held high...that we would NOT come back home this way. We
also decided that we would NOT spend the night in this state, no matter how long
it took us to get out of it. We were going to drive and drive and drive, until
we were in the capable hands of another state. We did not eat here or buy any
post cards here....nothing.
And never in my life had I seen so many
1960's style single wide trailers. What is up with that? Arkan-trash....Arkan-hogs.....(they
are the Razor-backs, you know)...it was like being in the Twilight Zone.....what
a dreadful place this was...there were absolutely no redeeming qualities of this
place. I had a headache when we finally reached Oklahoma...and I do not get
headaches.
I am here to tell any and everyone
I know that if you are ever planning a trip across the States...by all
means...AVOID THIS STATE AT ALL COSTS......no other state can compare to this
one.
OKAY......on to Oklahoma....what
a beautiful state this was....we really enjoyed the ride though here. The very
minute that we hit Oklahoma the roads changed...and we both went, "Ahhhhhhh...."
We spent the night in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.
And it's really strange...it rained and
thundered...stormed bad all night long, and when we got up, the ground was dry.
Go figure! Our destination that day was to reach New Mexico.
Another fun thing we did while on this
adventure was to take some video movies with us, just in case a campground didn't have
cable TV. If it did have cable TV then we could keep up with the
Olympics...which we were able to do a few nights. But for the most part, we
watched movies while we relaxed for the evening. We kept in theme with our
vacation...taking movies along that coincided with the states we were visiting.
I took a journal with me...a trip journal.
I wanted to record our experience in a different place than my daily journal (I
know, I know....) And I made notes of things that we saw along the way...and one
of the things we noticed was that there are a lot of careless smokers out there.
Starting with Oklahoma, we realized how dry everything was....how parched the
area was, everywhere we looked.
We also saw a lot of areas along the roads that
were burnt, due to cigarettes thrown from the car. What's the deal with that?
Are there not any ashtrays in their cars? I remember going past this one car and
a young girl just tossed her cigarette out of the window and it rolled under the
car and the wind blew it right to the side of the road, where all the dry grass
was. How careless.
We saw homes that were built close to the roads and some had
burn patches in front of them. Imagine losing your house over a careless smoker.
We began to see road signs warning of the chance of fires. I don't understand
why these people can't think about how dangerous it is. We also noticed that
there was not a lot of garbage along the sides of the roads.
We noticed how windy and cold it was
getting...and we rode past Oklahoma City. I remember how somber we were,
recalling the Oklahoma City
bombing.
Les changed his clothes at
lunchtime.....had to get into some warmer clothing. We both got our light
jackets out. We stopped at the Cherokee
Trading Post for some gifts and post cards. We had a great time shopping and
poking around in the huge store.
We
arrived in Amarillo,
Texas and were more than ready for a great steak. We decided to go to the
most advertised place on the interstate...The
Big Texan Steak Ranch. Oh, my....what a wonderful place this was. They had
musicians and an atmosphere that made you feel as though you stepped back in
time. We loved this place. They have a 72 oz. steak and if you can eat it within
one hour, you can have it free. No....we didn't even consider it. We heard that
the youngest person to eat it was an 11 year old and the oldest person to eat it
was a 69 year old, 95 pound woman. Imagine that! They have a website and you can
order steaks, which is what I plan to do.
After dinner we were on our way to the Cadillac
Ranch. The sun was setting pretty quickly, but nothing was going to stop us
from seeing those Cadillacs.
