Day 26 – Arkansas and Oklahoma

Today our timing was a little quirky. We got going too late to miss morning rush hour and too early to sit around and wait for the attractions in downtown Memphis to open. So we drove through the city into Arkansas… did you know West Memphis is actually in Arkansas? I didn’t.

The landscape seemed to change with the state line and instead of trees and hills I began to see rolling hills and farmland again. Arkansas is a really pretty state, with plenty of lakes and the Ozark Mountains. I think it’s called “The Natural State” or “The Nature State”. I was really looking forward to seeing the Blanchard Springs Caverns, but I had made a big mistake in that the Caverns themselves were 2 ½ hours northeast of the visitor center address I had in Russleville. (a small town just west of Little Rock). There was no way I was going to take that much of a detour – even to see the beautiful caverns, and the nice lady in the office gave me a few suggestions of other things we could do – like have a picnic by a lake in a beautiful state park just down the way.

It was at that point I realized I had no interest in stopping and neither did the kids really. They were annoyed enough at stopping at the visitor center. They didn’t want to have to interrupt their backseat movie, and they had developed a routine they wanted to repeat at every hotel: play in the pool, take showers, and sit on the bed with popcorn and watch the Disney channel as late as they possibly could before falling asleep. We drove by the lake on the way back to the 40, and the kids looked up for a moment to acknowledge it, and then we got focused and drove all the way to Oklahoma City.

Again, at the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, I noticed a difference. In Oklahoma we entered the Cherokee Indian Nation. There were signs all along the way to stop and purchase Native American artifacts and souvenirs. We listened to country music from Tulsa on the road, and stayed at a hotel in the center of the city.

One of the big things that the kids noticed on this trip, is that people smoke. In California, we have banned smoking from almost everywhere – to the point that the children don’t see it, and when they do, it horrifies them to the point where they are intolerant. This evening there were three young kids swimming in the hotel pool, and the oldest one, who must have been about 17 or 18, was sitting on the edge smoking a cigarette. This ruined the kids pool experience, as they didn’t want to be anywhere near it. It’s funny how as a parent, I can never think of perfect, clever responses to the kids questions when they have them. I just hope these strong negative opinions about alcohol, drugs and smoking carry them through their teen-age years unscathed.