Start of the Trip

My trip starts on Thursday morning, several days before I actually leave on Monday, with a frantic phone call from my mother.

"What day do you start your trip?" She asks waking me up at 7am on my day off.
"Monday, why?"
"OH MY GOD! REALLY?  The car needs an oil change and its two front tires replaced! Get up we are getting it fixed now!"

After smoothing out this one bump in the road, I am now in possession of my Family's Lexus.  I am very grateful for the car because if my car died along the way, which was a very a strong possibility, I was either going to be delieverenced or Texas Chain Saw Massacred...depending on where it broke down.

After all of this on Monday I started the trip in my standard style, forgetting a key piece of luggage containing the homemade granola i had just made as a gift for all of my hosts.  Luckily i was only 20 minutes down the road so I shot back to the office, grabbed them out of my dads car, and headed back on the road.

At 11:58 saw my first "Bridge may ice in cold weather" sign in Bella Vista Arkansas.  Some people say that when the Hardees change to Carl's Jr's you hit the south but for me, its these signs.

Arrived in Little Rock with no issues and was warmly greeted by John Ramsey. He welcomed me into the house and within moments i had a great glass of red wine in my hand and was ushered to a screened in porch with an amazing view of the river.  We sat and talked about everything that's going on, all future plans, and everything family.  Stayed up late and slept late, we had a fun day ahead of us touring his town.

Stewart