Cross Country Trip Day Eight: Rogers Arkansas to Amarillo Texas

The last couple of days have been fantastic and many memories have been made.  Brian and Karen’s home is a little slice of heaven; we have enjoyed our time there immensely.  One of my favorite moments was sitting on the back porch watching the deer.  While they were indeed intrigued with one particular large white fluff ball, it was Bailey that seemed more on edge.  She sat and studied them, then decided they were not worth her attention and wandered off in search of better activities. 

I was able to enjoy something that I haven’t had since I left California – shaved ice!  The menu was gigantic and I was silently glad that there was a line waiting to order.  I changed my mind at least seventeen times as I inched closer to the counter.  In the end I settled on Invisible Cloak which was vanilla, wedding cake, and silver fox.  The flavors were all invisible, hence the name, unlike Miss Jaime’s who’s Georgia Peach (strawberry and peach) could not be denied. 

This morning we said our sad goodbyes and hit the road close to nine o’clock.  Jaime is becoming an exceptional little travel buddy.  I had my doubts in the beginning.  We’ve traveled together before and it has not been pretty.  But this time around she has stepped up to the plate and I find myself not even second guessing her directions.  Normally when we start out she will give me the first couple of steps to the route.  This morning though she started to speak but all that came out was laughter.  Instead of stating go West for 34.7 miles then take exit 82 (as an example) the GPS said to enter Interstate 40 and continue for 1093 miles.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We had a good chuckle about that one.  If only this moving box had cruise control installed we could push the button and go to sleep or something.  I mean really, this portion of the Interstate is as straight as straight can be. 

We did have a minor hang up today.  There was a disagreement among five big rigs which resulted in a fire when the metal came crashing together.  One truck caught fire which moved to the brush on the side of the road which in turn ignited a power pole.  Traffic in all four lanes came to a screeching halt.  During the 45 minute standstill people got out of their vehicles to stretch their legs, talk to the neighboring car and such.  I was just waiting for a game of Frisbee to start up.  Oh wait, we’re not in California yet.    

Amarillo is where we hang our hats tonight.  Tomorrow brings another full day of driving as we make our way to Lake Have-A-Sue Arizona.  Every time I try to spell that darn name spellchecker runs with it in every direction but the correct one.  So I figure this way there will be no mistaking what I’m trying to say. 

Good night ya’ll.