8-13-08
Problem number one of travelling like this is feeding Field Pea on his schedule while getting from place to place. The solution we have accepted is for me to stretch my left arm back at an odd angle and hold a bottle until Field Pea shakes it off or my arm falls asleep. Naturally, I do not consider this optimal.
Today we left Tulsa -- wait a second. . . Let's start at where the last update left off.
After Memphis we travelled to Harrison, Arkansas, via Little Rock.
Just southeast of Little Rock we visited Toltec Mounds State Park, in the heart of the land of the dragonfly. No kidding, dragonflies there were almost as thick as gnats back home. And since I didn't see any gnats, I don't know what those dragonflies eat.
Then, since we were so close, we went to see the Clinton presidential library. No, we did not go in. We weren't willing to pay to do so. Nor did we go next door to the Clinton School of Public Service, which is associated with the Arkansas university system and therefore a topic for another day.
What with the side trip to downtown Little Rock and a futile hunt that afternoon for a postcard showing the Clinton library, we spent longer in Little Rock than anticipated and ended up touring a portion of the Ozarks after dark to reach Harrison.
The Ozarks are spooky after dark.
Seriously, the area was not very built up, and what businesses were there closed early. With no lights along the street, it was very dark. Compare this with southeast Idaho, where it's not built up but there are no trees -- you can see a light bulb 20 miles distant if there aren't hills in the way.
At Harrison, we stayed at the Family Budget Inn, another good find.
The next day we went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but first we went to Branson, Missouri.
Branson was lovely, and we enjoyed the visit. I have my doubts, though, whether I would have enjoyed the area if we'd been there several days. The area had a permanent population of 6000, and had 40 country music venues. That's too much tourism focused on an activity I just do not enjoy.
So Tulsa was last night's stay. Today we went to Oklahoma City. We went there to see the memorial for the Oklahoma City bombing.
Really, I would call it five or six memorials side by side. The areas are that distinctly different. One has an area paved with stones, including several large slates. There is sidewalk chalk available for marking on those slates. This was naturally the one that Jellybean gravitated towards.
Maybe it was a mistake to try to explain the memorial to a 4-year-old. . . bad man. . . bomb. . . people leave messages. Jellybean wanted to write a message. After a couple of marks on blank areas of the slates, he decided what he wanted to do was trace his hand. So he asked for help, and then decided what he wanted was for me to trace my hand. I don't blame him. The slate had been in the sun for hours, and was hot.
The plan is to head to Wichita, Kansas, for supper, and find a place to stay up the road from there.
No comments:
Post a Comment