Day 2 - Oklahoma Bound

We got a better night’s sleep last night in Jackson, TN, but hopes for a good night’s sleep are looking slim due to the redneck pool party four floors below us. The whole hotel is fully booked, with some kind of group that, trust me, pings every redneck stereo type identified by Jeff Foxworthy.

Today we got up at 5:00AM again, and were on the road around 6:00AM after stopping at Jack’s for breakfast. I got a sausage biscuit and Jim got the county fried steak biscuit. He wasn’t impressed by the steak. The drive through Memphis was uneventful. We do think Arkansas is trying to secretly annex land because their welcome sign was placed on the bridge over the Mississippi River before we crossed the actual state line. We saw this again when we crossed from Oklahoma back into Arkansas, I’ll get to that in a moment. We stopped at the welcome center to pick up a map and use the restroom. Good thing we did because Arkansas does not appear to believe in regularly spaced rest areas with restrooms, a lot of semi-truck pull offs though. We basically made it through Little Rock, and to the Arkansas/Oklahoma border by noon where we made a few stops. The first stop was for lunch at Smokey B’s BBQ, which is a food truck parked in a small park next to a gas station. The pulled pork sandwich I had was good and Jim thought his brisket sandwich was pretty good. I also had a smoked macadamia nut cookie, which you could really taste the smoke in and was the right level of smokey and sweet. From there we went to Fort Smith National Historic Site which straddles the Arkansas/Oklahoma line. We noted that Arkansas had their welcome sign in well before the actual state line, thus the theory they are trying to covertly annex land.

Fort Smith was a nice little side trip, and I pulled out the real camera for that one. We walked the grounds, saw the foundation of the old fort and I got my National Park stamp. This is the first stamp I have gotten in the Southwest Region. I highly recommend if you like to visit national parks to pick up a National Parks Passport book, it is a great way to track what parks and national sites you have visited. After Fort Smith it was on to Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain. Specifically on to Oklahoma City.

We checked into our hotel around 4:00PM and that was when we found out the whole hotel was booked. We ate at a Cracker Barrel. Did you know Cracker Barrel now has a selection of wine and beer on their menu? Tomorrow it is on to Amarillo which we will not make by morning, more like noon, then ending the day in Albuquerque.

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