Day 8 Trailing Back Foss, OK to Little Rock, AR

As I write this blog post, Thomas is sitting outside after the long drive enjoying a double IPA, a beautiful evening, a view of the river and this toasty fire.

We are batting 1000 (a baseball metaphor with a nod to my fan friends and family). We are in a campsite outside of Little Rock that puts us on the shore of the Arkansas River. If I have learned anything this trip (actually I have learned a lot of things...) it is that staying a little off the highway in a state or county park is WAY better than a KOA. The place we drove into tonight as the sunset was beginning did not disappoint.

By now you are tired of hearing about my humility, but here we go again. Arkansas is beautiful! It has captured my heart. Almost immediately after leaving Oklahoma the edges of the highway turned from flat plains to a thick copse of a variety of trees with and without leaves that went on forever. Rolling highway and colorful foliage. My picture above does not capture it well as the sun was setting so you will need to use your imagination. The trees, so different from California, make me wish I had paid better attention in my botany class in college. In California we are so used to the grandeur of our trees. I was struck not by grandeur but by sheer numbers of smaller, more diverse and colorful trees. I imagine I am beginning to experience the changes ahead. Even the trees are unfamiliar.

Another thing we noticed in Arkansas ~ masks appear very optional. In New Mexico there where signs everywhere along the highway to wear a mask, and letting people know that the Covid rates are the highest they have been so far. In Oklahoma we saw no such signs but we saw a lot of people wearing masks. In Arkansas, at one gas station where we stopped, not one person except Thomas was wearing a mask (I was in the car lest you worry). At this particular time, when we know that our friends at home are on a stay-at-home order, and we ourselves were/are quite nervous to be making this trek, it continues to demonstrate the chasm that exists in our country. And the complete lack of real leadership. I am aware that the fact that we are a white, older, straight couple traveling through the country affords us a different kind of welcoming friendliness than others might experience. I long to experience mutual understanding and compassion but have no idea how to be a change agent in making this happen. Possibly the liberal dilemma.

On another note...we are getting used to this traveling with no hot water thing. We lounged in bed this morning drinking coffee and reading/talking because we knew there was no option to hop up and take a shower. I got to wash my hair when we stayed in Albuquerque and I think that will last me until Virginia. And this sponge bath thing with water heated using the electric teakettle is actually beginning to grow on me. Actually what I really think is true is that humans are so adaptable. Although it helps that it has not really been very cold except at the Grand Canyon. Adaptability is probably so much easier when the weather is on your side.

Time for dinner ~ baked potatoes with beans, cheese, yogurt and salsa. Then curl up in Nessie and watch a movie we managed to download. An early evening to an early start in the morning. Let's see what Tennessee brings.