Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico

We did that with one overnight stop, leaving Cotter and overnighting in Chandler, Oklahoma, which is a beautiful rural area on old Route 66, with some original buildings in the small town itself. There is a crossroads with a little stadium and a sign that says "Denver," but just seemed to be a car wash and a couple of other buildings, I guess there is a school there somewhere. They are proud of their team, with large bright orange Denver Bulldogs logo painted on the buildings. The Walmart about 10 miles away actually sold two styles of T-shirts with their logos, as well as Oklahoma state stuff, which I thought was kind of cool for a big company to do that.

We travelled through Tulsa and Oklahoma City, noting that the dirt is a rich bright orange/red color in this state, then stopped at a rest area right over the Texas line that was a storm shelter built into a hill. It had free BBQs to use that are shaped like the state!

Then we stayed overnight in Amarillo and tried Famous Dave's BBQ, which was pretty good. The thing I love about down here is that they are quick with slamming down another soda or ice tea when your previous one is about 2/3 or less gone. Then they ask if you want to take more soda or fries home with you, no charge. When we were ready to go I still had 2/3 of my ice tea left so I asked for something so I could take it home. He came back and set a big take-home styro cup with lid, already filled with ice tea, on the table! 

Made it to Roswell Sunday afternoon, about 95 degrees F and sunny. Each day's trip was about 5 hours. We are staying here for a week to enjoy the nice weather.

Above:  Lots of big farms in Oklahoma

Above:  In Oklahoma just before Texas state line, a little wind damage

Above:  Inside the storm-shelter rest area

Above:  Through the backroads of the Ozarks in Arkansas

Above:  Bright red dirt common in Western Arkansas and lots of Oklahoma

Above:  Chander, Oklahoma, on old Route 66

Above:  Gigantic Texas-shaped BBQs at the storm-shelter rest area

Above:  Texas rest area storm shelter near Oklahoma state line

Above:  Old place near Roswell, NM

Touring the Ozarks

Overheard in Sharps Cutlery Firearms Possibles shop in Norfork, Arkansas, asked by the clerk helping a customer carry four large boxes of ammo out to his truck (maybe 20 pounds each box):

"so are you goin' plinkin' or stockin' up?"

"Stockin' up"

This guy was then seen a mile down the road at a small gas station filling up several large jerry cans with gas. Maybe he knows something we don't...

Ozarks in Arkansas

Out in the backwoods of Arkansas. We are smack in the middle of the Ozarks, camping on the White River. Lots of nesting great blue herons, bald eagles, turkey vultures, eastern bluebirds, turtles, and saw a baby midland water snake, too. They have about a dozen or more indigenous snake species in the state but only about 4 are venomous.

Lots of small towns all around these hills to explore, lots of good fly fishing and a huge lake system with good bass fishing. We stopped by the place where Ranger boats are made near here. They have a really nice building devoted to the achievements of the couple who started the company, Forrest and Nina Wood. Lots of trophies and photos of them with various rich and famous Republican politicians. And a lot of taxidermy victims, too.

Above: The camp has an honor system for the ice machine. This box has been full of money since we got here.  Says something for the area...

Above: House in Flippin, Arkansas

Above: Campfire at dusk, still 28 C. outside :)

Above: Common site of rocking chairs in front of the old stores in Flippin, Arkansas

Above: View from our campsite overlooking the White River

Above: Arkansas state flag

Above: The old Flippin jailhouse

Above: University of Arkansas Razorbacks teams' logo

Rush, Arkansas

We are in the Ozarks Mountains of Arkansas. Cue Deliverance music and get the compound bow ready, Burt.

This is an old zinc mining town near Cotter. The creek runs over the dirt road in a few spots that have been cemented over to allow this, with encouraging signs that say the road is impassible during high water. It's up to you to figure out if it's too high or not.

Graceland

Above: The bridge we went over to get into Memphis from the Arkansas side

We decided to drive from Shreveport, Lousiana, to Memphis, Tennessee, yesterday despite the weather forecasts of severe rain, flooding, and thunderstorms.  The weather was great until Little Rock, Arkansas, and then the driving rain accompanied us right through to Memphis, where the lightning started flashing about every 30 seconds.  So we arrived here in style anyway!

We are staying right across the road from Graceland.  It has really nice grounds at the back of the RV park for the dogs to have interesting walks in.  The weather was supposed to be crappy all weekend with flood warnings and thunderstorm advisories, but the sun was shining this morning and it was a pleasant 15 degrees C. all day (although one of the salesclerks at a souvenir shop we patronized said, "Once we get over this cold snap, we'll get some heat.")  Tomorrow is supposed to be pure sun and 20 degrees C.

Honestly not a huge crazy Elvis fan, but I'd have to say it was interesting going on the mid-priced Graceland tour for $36.00.  We toured the house and grounds, which included some outbuildings with a lot of relics from Elvis' life, including clothes, cars, jets, all of his gold records and grammies, etc. 

There are a lot of gift shops and souvenir stores on the Plaza.  After we went through the car museum, we were fed into one of them.  It was tightly packed with merchandise of all descriptions.  I wandered over to look at the T-shirts when a clink-clink of a falling cup sounded, followed by a very impressive cascading crashing sound as about a dozen black Elvis coffee cups hit the tile floor and smashed into myriad pieces.  The people closest to the catastrophe stood there trying to look innocent.  I'm not sure whether they actually caused the crash or not, but it was really spectacular and the great thing was that I was not involved in any way!

We also visited the Sirius Radio Elvis station broadcast booth on the Plaza across from Graceland and met George Klein.  For those who are not listening to the Elvis station on Sirius, George is one of the Memphis Mafia who hung out with Elvis in the good years, and he can frequently be heard recanting personal tales from a bottomless tickle trunk full of Elvis memories.  We even got him to sign our copy of his book of memoirs, "Elvis, My Best Man."  Here are some pix from Graceland:

Above:  Black and yellow downstairs room.  All the rooms in the house are a bit on the small side to get good pix

Above: Living room to right as you enter through front doors

Above: Arriving at front of Graceland

Above: The wall that separates the street from Graceland, covered and recovered with notes from fans

Above: The pool area and back patio

Above: Graceland at dusk

To Graceland

Just so's you know, tomorrow we're heading north through Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee, for the sole purpose of visiting Elvis in Graceland.  This will be weather permitting as there are advisories for thunderstorms with the odd scattered tornado in the Ark-La-Tex area, as they like to call it down here. 

Pounds of Crawfish and Billy the Exterminator

So what the hell, here we are in Louisiana, why not stop by Billy the Exterminator's place and say hello. It's about 20 minutes from our campground in a semi rural area. It's only about 500 feet on off the road, no gate or anything, with Billy's black truck sitting beside the place. Too bad no one answered when we knocked on the door, so the photo op was very limited. Oh, well...

Then we went down to Gerald Savoie's and ordered up 4 pounds of boiled crawfish for $23 to celebrate the start of the crawfish season here, some blackened alligator, and some bang-bang alligator. "Bang-bang" applies to any of the seafood that is lightly battered and fried, and then a delicious spicy-sweet sauce is put on them. Awesome!

We were on the covered patio sitting at picnic tables. The crawfish is boiled in spiced water with whole new potatoes and chunks of corn on the cob. They also had live entertainment with a local blues singer who has been around for a lot of years.

It is a warm evening, plus 25 C, crickets are chirping and a light breeze is blowing on this warm Louisiana spring evening.

Above: Billy the Exterminator's truck sitting beside the house

Above: Menu at Gerald Savoie's Cajun Restaurant in Bossier City, Louisiana

Above: 4 pounds of boiled crawfish

Above: Blackened alligator (right) and bang-bang alligator (left)

Bayou

Made it into a new state today, first time in Louisiana. A digital billboard just outside of Shreveport pleaded with oilfield workers to. One Nd meet the guys from Swamp People live. Hm...

Heading out to get us a mess of fred and/or blackened alligator. Full report later. Almost a full moon, plus 25 C and breezy at 7:00. Just perfect!

JFK

We had to get a new GPS unit when the old one started malfunctioning around Luckenback, Texas.  It has since made somewhat of a recovery, but meanwhile we took off into downtown Dallas to check out the old book depository building where JFK was assassinated.  We took some crazy three-lane changes off the freeway and I thought for sure we were in the wrong place when a sign suddenly sprung up that said the book depository museum was only 2 blocks away.  We even found a good spot to parallel park right on the street, fed a bunch of quarters into the meter for 2 hours, and proceeded down the street. 

As we got to a corner, I started feeling huge energy and tingling on my arms and head.  I didn't say anything about it, but my companion remarked a few minutes later about the same thing and a weird feeling.  Once we got down to the actual building and area where the assassination had taken place, the feeling had left. 

There are two Xs on the road where the first and second shots hit the president.  I risked life and limb to dodge traffice and stand over each X and take a photo of the book depository from those spots (below).

The building's sixth floor is a self-guided museum (meaning headphones and recorded info on each exhibit).  Photos were not permitted inside.  There was a huge amount of info which would have required many hours to ingest, and as the crowds were growing after the first hour, we decided to leave. 

Standing on this corner getting our first glimpse of the book depository.  The window of importance is the 7th from the left, on the sixth floor on the left face of the building in the photo.  Funny that the other windows in that row have rounded tops, but that window is square.  

Above: Taken while standing directly over X in road marking spot where first shot hit the president

Above: Taken while standing directly over X in road marking spot where second shot hit the president

Above: What the sixth floor looked like on the day of assassination. looking down towards the windows facing the street

Above: The Red Museum, an unbelievably fabulous building that seems rather out of place in the worn-out downtown area of the book depository