Day 3: Dallas to Oxford, Miss.

Today wasn’t so bad. Both because I only drove for eight hours and because there was a lot more civilization on the drive today.


My wonderful host last night, Jon, was quite helpful again this morning, then we went along on our separate ways in the rain


I got a good photo of the Texarkana water tower, then had a camera malfunction on the “official” sign for Arkansas. It was over the left lane instead of on the right-hand side of the road like normal. I missed it.


We drove past a little town called Hope


Got a crappy long-distance picture of downtown Little Rock, since I took the bypass around downtown.


As I left the greater Little Rock area, I saw this freeway sign for Jacksonville, Ark. I know people who grew up there. I could tell you who they are, but then I’d have to kill you.


This looked like an intentionally set fire of some sort. You could see it for miles and miles.


Since I biffed on getting the Arkansas sign going into the state and there was a traffic jam crossing the un-labeled river exiting the state (Yes, I know it's the Mississippi. I'm just saying that it was the only river I've crossed on the trip that was completely un-labeled), I took this in my side-view mirror


Same traffic jam allowed me to take this well-framed photo of the Tennessee sign. By the way, the I-55 route into Memphis is worthy of Los Angeles … in the fine spirit of the 405-101 interchange. This is not a compliment.


I was irritated that there was no sign coming into Mississippi. Bill, my host for this evening and tomorrow, insists that it was there, but I was specifically looking for it and didn’t see it. But I needed to use the facilities, so I stopped at the Welcome Center


And found the official-looking sign there.

Because it was a short day of driving, I got to Bill’s house around 4 pm. That includes a little directions mix-up. When I walked into the house, Bill’s mom immediately informed me that her son is directionally challenged, but I’ll keep him around anyway. I found it on the second try, to no worries.

No driving tomorrow. Hooray! I’m looking forward to seeing Oxford and spending a day with my best friend. We’re currently doing dueling laptops on the couch with Jackson, one of his two dogs, asleep between us. It’s a good day.

TODAY’S SOUNDTRACK
* Remainder of “A Walk in the Woods” Made me want to hike the AT.
* I tried to start listening to 1776 but couldn’t do it
* Hit shuffle on the iPod for a while but that didn’t work for me either
* Listened to The Producers, then Avenue Q

TRIP STATISTICS
Today: 3 states (Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi), 537.5 miles, 8 hours, 6 minutes
Trip: 6 states (CA, AZ, NM, TX, TN, MS), 1,995 miles

LICENSE PLATES
Today (11 states): Illinois, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, New Hampshire (Live Free or Die!), Nebraska, Georgia, Ohio
Total (32 states): Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Fla., Ga., Hawaii, Idaho, Ill., Ind., Kan., Ken., La., Md., Mich., Miss., Mont., Mo., N.H., N.M., Neb., Nev., Ohio, Ore., Okla., S. Car., Tenn., Texas, Va.

On a side note, early in the day today, the Hubster wanted to know which would be higher: the number of state plates I would see on this trip or the highest number of cars we counted for sale on Inglewood on a weekend in California (street near our house). Since the Inglewood number was 33, I took the over in a heartbeat. I’m gonna crush that number. Notice I don't even have New York, West Virginia or Pennsylvania on the list yet! :)