Our trip: Day 1: Sunday 20th August 2017

Sunday morning, the 20th of August, I awoke feeling somewhat nauseated and a little anxious.  I couldn't put my finger on it.  We'd packed for the trip the night before, leaving some items to load until the morning, like a cooler with frozen bottles of water that would keep the unfrozen drinks cool and our medicine, computers, pillows, etc.  We were both excited for the trip and looking forward to it.  But for some reason, I was almost panicked and having a difficult time getting myself to calm.  I felt like I needed another shower, even tho I had just taken one.  I was incredibly hot and that made me worry about later in the trip and how I would fare when we crossed the desert; yes, our yaris has air-conditioning, but there was no guarantee that it would be able to handle the triple digits of the dry desert.  Then I reminded myself that it's been a good lil car and has handled triple digits of moist Mississippi heat and let's not go beggin' or borrowin' trouble.  As anyone with anxiety disorders can tell you, sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for when or what will trigger it.  But this particular spell didn't last for long; by the time we said goodbye to our three lil dogs, Sophie, Chiquita, and Libby, I was ready to go.  I reclined the seat and rested to achieve a calmer state and by the time we pulled into Waffle House for breakfast in Winona, about an hour's drive to the west from Starkville; I felt much, Much, MUCH better.

Our plan was to head up I55 to Memphis and catch I40 west past Little Rock, then take the scenic AR 7 north thru the Ozarks.  It's one of the top scenic drives in the USA that National Geographic recommends.  I heartily recommend it too!

We did have a slightly off putting moment or two in West Memphis at the Arkansas Welcome Center.  One of the two employees had asked Jerry where he was from and at his reply of Mississippi, she quipped, "Oh, I'm sorry."  Thing is, this is our home, where we choose to be.  Mississippi does have its faults, sure, but there are many good things about Mississippi too.  Someone who is acting as a welcoming ambassador should not put down your home, even if they view doing so as a joke.  Jerry wears a billed cap which proudly proclaims that he is retired Coast Guard, he was in active service for over twenty years.  After he retired from the military, he worked in the food service industry for a few years before he worked for Mississippi State University.  He then worked at MSU, in the Vet School's library, working with students, faculty, and staff.  He retired from that in 2015.  So you might say that he knows a thing or two about working in a service oriented industry, especially dealing with the general public.  So when we have great encounters, we are sure to compliment them and also to let their superiors know that they did a great job.  We do the same if there is terrible service; so that night, he wrote to the Arkansas Department of Tourism.  Other than that tho, we were determined to kick off our trip with good spirits, so didn't let that get us down.

So we set off on AR SR 7, thru a fair piece of the Ozarks, a mountain range that Missouri and Arkansas share.  For those of you familiar with Lil Abner, you may recall that for a time, there was a themed amusement park that focused on the Lil Abner characters.  The now defunct park is closed to the public, but you can still see quite a bit as the road travels along portions of the creek, campground, and several buildings.  You can read all about Dogpatch USA here.

Scenic 7 twisted and curved, climbing up and then dipping down, cautioning you to drive slowly.  We gawked at the Buffalo National River, cutting a swath thru the valleys, over the years creating a grand canyon of the Ozarks, different in presentation but similar in creation as THE Grand Canyon in Arizona.  I'd picked up a brochure on the wildflowers because there were some that I didn't recognize at all, tho many I did.

Mexican Hat, Queen Ann's Lace, Black~Eyed Susan, chicory, Cardinal Flower, Purple Coneflower, Rose Vervain, Goldenrod, Plains Coreopsis, Butterfly Weed, and Tickseed grew plentifully along the highway, into the fields, down the valleys, and up mountainsides.  We saw a few barn quilts, too.  I read that the Buffalo is this country's first national river; I didn't even know we had national rivers!  It was all lushly beautiful.

For lunch, we stopped at the Ozark Cafe, in Jasper, Arkansas.  It's one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the state.  It's on the National Registry of Historic Places, as the original Ozark Cafe was opened in 1909 and served only one item per day, either a soup or a stew.  One bowl cost a quarter.  It today's market that 1909 quarter would be $6.50!

One of the reasons Lil Abner's theme park did not succeed for long is because Branson is able to attract many entertainers that it could not.  Branson and the Pigeon Forge/Sevierville/Gatlinburg area of the Smokies share many of the same entertainment companies, which provide venues for variety shows, musicians, plays, etc.  Lil Abner's and Branson only sit an hour or so apart.  There were other reasons for the park's demise, including the retirement of the artist who drew the comic strip, so folks became less familiar with the characters.  But speak to most anyone who grew up in the sixties, and they can tell you something about the movies and tv shows featuring those comic strip characters, including Schmoo!

We pulled into Joplin, Missouri to spend the night with our airbnb hosts late.  It was almost ten and we brushed our teeth, after saying our hellos, then fell into the very comfortable bed.  In the morning, we set off for our drive north, intending to witness the solar eclipse from St Joseph, a bit north of Kansas City, in totality.  But that was not to be...