As a continuation to the last blog post, I'll try to address the remaining bullet points that I wanted to share.
The toilet incident (I've got your attention, don't I?)Goats,Deer, Armadillo- B&B heaven / Fudge, clutch pearls, gasp
- Rage Monster: Cramps and Heat
- Settling In
- Decision Fatigue
- The general pattern of road trips - aka Me and Road Trips
- Peeing in fear (different than "The toilet incident")
- What I packed but didn't touch, except to move it out of my way
- Snacks & Drinks
Oh boy, that's a lot! And I didn't even mention: fear, no signal, the Eiffel Tower....oh there's so much to cover!
Yeah, totally fell asleep instead of writing the blog. Now I'm having a delicious yogurt, granola, berry and bacon breakfast. I'm waking up, trying to remember what happened yesterday. With so much input over the last week, it gets all jumbled together, which is partly why I get so tired. And 100% why by the end of every vacation I stop writing. The idea of being home soon puts me in relax mode rather than go go go mode and motivation drops through the floor. Let's see if I can pull it together this time!
Little Rock Arkansas. I pulled off the freeway into a residential neighborhood. The first thing I saw was a homeless man at the stop sign to my left. Not a bad place to ask for a hand. And maybe his girlfriend, or another homeless woman on a bench to my right. She had her shoes off and was playing, picking at, or examining her feet. Hello, Little Rock!
I've only driven to / through a few 'big' cities on this trip. Dallas, OKC, Tulsa, Little Rock and a bunch of small ones or even tiny ones. The only place you see "homeless" are big cities and it always bums me out. It's a slap in the face that 'big city' doesn't mean success. Not all the people there are prospering. It's like a small version of the American Dream to move from a tiny town to a big city, but it's just a dream.
Boy, this is too deep a topic for the amount of coffee I've had. I'm not really getting to the point. I'm sorry, let's get back to the fun, light, what-did-I-see-on-my-adventures blog.
Krista had found me the most amazing and probably oldest standing Victorian Home (B&B) in Little Rock Arkansas. The gentlemen who run it, did an amazing job decorating and keeping it in excellent working order.
During breakfast on the wrap around porch the following morning, I mentioned to the gentleman who checked me in that I didn't really have a plan for the day. That I needed to get to Dallas by Sunday for a flight. He lit up and suggested Jefferson, TX. "There are hundreds of B&Bs there," he said, "not as big as this one, but all Victorian." And then he said, "And there's this fudge shop." He put his palm on his chest and gasped. I really wanted to go there, buy him some fudge and mail it to him, but Jefferson was just too far out of my way.
Instead I started driving to Oklahoma, because....well, when Krista and I first started dating, I took a 12 day road trip (between jobs) to Mount Rushmore (it's all available in the blog). For every state we thought I'd pass, she gave me a little envelope with facts about the state and a little note. I asked her to do the same for this trip and wanted to take a picture with the envelopes at each State's welcome sign.
So far, all I had was this, because I either couldn't stop at the state signs or there wasn't one on this random road.
Ok, I'm fading again. My breakfast is done and this coffee isn't doing anything for me. I've got to go take a nap or I'm going to fall asleep on my keyboard.
Bullet points to talk about later.
- Little Rock - Couldn't find the Clinton library, which was closed anyway
- Aiming for Broken Bow to take state line pictures
- Garvan Woodland Gardens (as suggested by the woman I met at the Center of the Universe)
- Murphreesboro - Diamond mines
- Broken NOPE - "No Hoodies or No Masks. Take them off before you come in."
- Paris, TX and the Eiffel Tower (which is at a high school and also a war memorial?)
- Warwick-Melrose Hotel in Dallas (ending where I started)
I couldn't nap, but I did shower. That might help.
This was as close as I got to the Clinton Library. This is the Capitol Building. Google Maps kept rerouting and turning me in circles and putting me in parking lots that were not the library. I looked it up later and I'm pretty sure that the library is next to or behind this, but there was construction and road/parking lot closures, so I couldn't get to it. Also, it was closed anyway.
Next stop, Broken Bow. The goal really was to get to the state line and reassess.
This started a series of happy (sort of) accidents, where I ended up at places I heard about, did not plan on going to, never Googled and found myself in the middle of.
About an hour out of Little Rock, I saw a sign for Garvan Woodland Gardens. Remember the woman I met at the Center of the Universe (Tulsa)? She and her husband said they liked Presidential Libraries? She also recommended Garvan. I put it in my phone, but never looked it up and had no idea what part of Arkansas I would find it. A sign told me to turn left for the gardens and I couldn't pass it up, as it was only 5 or 10 minutes off my route anyway.
HUGE parking lot. And then I realized it was a large self-guided walking tour of who-knows-what. I told you, I never looked it up, but I was game. Krista said there was a really cool structure to see, much like the chapel yesterday, so I paid the $15 and started walking.
Maybe 2 minutes later, the car's air conditioning wore off my body and I realized that it was warm out. Y'all know I don't like to be hot, so I called Krista and said, "What am I supposed to see here?" She said, "The tree house. And if you see any flowers, can you send me a picture". I booked it for the tree house and by the time I got there, I was too hot to give a damn.
I really hate this about my body. If I overheat, even slightly, my mood drops through to the center of the Earth and there is nothing I can do about it. There's no drinking water or taking a beat to settle into it. Unless I lay down and prepare to die, or get back into an air conditioned space, my body SCREAMS flight/flight/freeze and all I can do is get mad.
How I posed
How I really felt
The structure was VERY cool (not temperature wise, unfortunately). You could climb around in there, so I did, because I'd made it this far, but every picture I took was quick and without aiming. I just wanted to prove that I'd been there and get out.
I called Krista and said, "I don't see any flowers. Can I send you a picture of a Doberman instead?" She was kind and agreed.
The minute I got back in the car, I changed my shirt, which was completely drenched. I pounded a bottle of water and then remembered that I had a cooling towel in the bag I'd been carrying around. IDIOT. That would have been good to remember 20 minutes ago.
Next stop, Broken Bow! Only, it wasn't. Another hour or so down the road, I saw a sign for Murfreesboro. Now, the joke here is that Krista and I have played Red Dead Redemption 2 a couple of times and there's a clan knows as the Murfree Brood. They're the worst people in the game. They love to torture folks and leave them for dead, basically. So, of course I'd have to stop in Murfreesboro...you know, just to make sure the game wasn't based on real events.
Turns out it's a diamond mining town. Or was. It's small and cute and everyone I talked to (I went into three shops) was so nice!
Have you ever been reminded of Christmas while sweating your ass off?
Ok, now really. Broken Bow!
I made it to the state line and got my pictures!
And then I had to pee. Now, if you remember my story from yesterday, I was not looking forward to my next bathroom experience, but it was a little worse (at least psychologically) than the loose toilet from yesterday.
I arrived or maybe was just about to arrive in Broken bow. There were two gas stations and I picked the one that was burning whole trees out the back. As I walked up to the front door, fastening my mask around my ears, I saw the sign.
"No Hoodies or No Masks. Take them off before you come in." I paused. A little shocked. And got by in my car. I'd rather piss myself than meet the person who wrote that sign.
First of all, it should read, "No hoodies or masks," but it could have just as easily read, "COVID only!" Being that close to ignorance, gave my heart a start. I immediately felt unsafe and was heading towards the town itself and still had to pee.
I had been wearing a baseball cap, but took that off and tried to smooth my hair down in a non-gay way, though I was wearing long shorts and bright yellow vans. I found a Shell station, or something I'd recognized, put on my mask, walked by bikers and big dudes and women - no masks. I opened the door into the convenience part of the station. There must have been 20 people inside and they ALL looked at me. I coughed loudly into my mask, as if to say, "Maybe I've got the COVID and don't want to give it to you!" Luckily the bathroom was to my left and available. My adrenaline was racing and when I was done, I tried not to look at anyone while exiting, though I did hear a woman (who was flipping burgers) loudly say, "Oh, yeah. I saw!"
Now, as a lady and as a gay lady to boot, I have on many occasions taken other people's conversations out of context and worried that it was about me. Are the kids in school laughing at me, sniggering about my outfit or the way I walk? Are the people in the Broken Bow, Arkansas gas station gawking at me because I believe in science and not Jesus? (Also, why is it that towns like this with advertised ignorance also have the largest Jesus signs? And Trump signs? It's not a great connection, folks.)
Sorry, I don't want to get political or religious. I'm just pointing out that I feel the most unsafe and judged when I'm in outwardly Republican and religious places.
Moving on from Broken bow.
So, with my adrenaline at a 9.5, I found myself wide awake and ready to drive as long and as far as I needed to in order to feel safe again. Unfortunately, I had no signal, which was not good for my adrenalin or my maps! I turned left (why not?) and followed highway signs that pointed south. I even looked at my compass (app) and though I was on a southern highway, my compass said I was going Northeast. The exact opposite direction I wanted to go. Get me to Texas! (said no one ever). About 10 minutes later, I had enough signal for Google maps, typed in my destination and was on my way.
It took me about 30 minutes to calm down and settle into the scenery. Whenever I do these long road trips, there always comes a point when the driving is easy. I'll have a pretty straight road that isn't a four lane highway, cruise control activated and good music or an audiobook on the stereo. On drives like this, time feels irrelevant and the scenery sinks into my bones. These are my favorites times. I tend to pull over randomly and take pictures of buildings or cows or wide open spaces that never look as good as a picture.
And every once in a while, you end up somewhere you'd only ever heard about in jokes.
That's right! Paris, Texas! They commissioned a small version of the Eiffel Tower and put a cowboy hat on it!
The part that you might not know is the context. And this is another reason I love traveling. When someone says a place that I've been, I know what it feels like, smells like, etc. If you said to me, "Cologne, Germany" I'm going to remember sitting with strangers in a cafe, staring out at an amazing cathedral. But I'm also going to remember where I parked and how hard it was to find an ATM. I have strange little memories from all over. Boys trying to sell me fireworks in Paris when I was trying to get a glimpse of the real Eiffel Tower from miles away. Gummy bears on my pillow at a hotel in the Black Forrest. Stumbling upon a Gaudi building by accident in Barcelona. I only knew I was there, because the tourists in front of me were all pointing their cameras behind me.
The Paris Texas Eiffel Tower is right next to a war memorial, which is also right next to the Pairs Texas High School. There were kids playing basketball in the 90+ degree heat right next to me.
Yeah, this is a sign for the high school
I had some dinner in Paris, Texas and decided to drive through to Dallas. I stayed in the same hotel I had a week ago and asked for a late check out, which gave me time to finish up this blog. I might go check out a museum after this, since I still have a few hours before my flight. But I don't know what will happen next, and I love it.
I love traveling. I love tapping into curiosity and whimsy and not knowing where I'll end up next or what I'll see or who I'll meet. Sure, there are scary times, or sad times when you see 30 dead armadillos in like 10 minutes along a road in Arkansas...yeah, that happened. Sometimes, I get stuck in the heat or a dodgy bathroom or I end up going 10 hours without eating a meal because I don't want to stop and I have nuts or other snacks strewn about the car. But most of the time, my brain is happy to learn bits and pieces about the world. To know what the landscape is like in Nebraska vs Ireland or what the bridges look like in Sydney vs Little Rock (I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of the bridges, they were really cool). My heart is happy be out and about, doing something new. I'm fulfilled in a way that I can't get by reading books or watching documentaries about a place. To be there and let it sink into me, to feel a place...I need that in this life. I need to know what its like to cry with strangers at a the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial museum. Oh, all the sudden, I'm remembering the time I was getting dinner at a town square in Viet Nam and everyone started walking away. All walking the same direction. I followed them and ended up at the water. There were a thousand people or more sitting around, mostly peacefully. It turned out to be their Independence Day and an incredible fireworks show took place right in front of me. I have been so lucky to see what I have in this life. To sneak into a closed drive-in and have it all to myself, to go for a walk on Route 66 and see what happens after the sunsets at a big neon pop sculpture, to be surprised by Bentonville Arkansas - these are gifts and I am truly happy to receive them.
Get out there, folks. Drive down a dirt road. Have a dog bark at you. Be safe. But be adventurous.
Until next time...
