Something or someone didn’t want us to leave Ft. Smith, Arkansas for reasons still unknown to either of us. Ft. Smith was the only deadlined stop. We were meeting with Jene’s long-time friend Corey, a photographer for the local paper. He was off from work on Sunday and Monday and we spent some time playing “so what have you been doing for the past upteen years”.
Corey & Jene - Arkansas River
Because Jene dunked his camera underwater last Friday, he was having Sean send a replacement camera to Corey’s address so that it would be here on Monday. Saturday Sean brought the wrong camera to Fed-X, was told that the package would not get out until Monday because of Hurricane Irene. Phone calls between father and son straightened the camera issue out and Sean would get it to Fed-X on Monday for a Tuesday delivery. Monday he walked to Fed-X and the office was closed, he tried another, that too was closed. Fine we’ll stay an extra day as the 50D should arrive overnight for a Wednesday morning delivery. We weren’t sure if we would drive 5 hours back to Memphis to do a little site-seeing or stay in Ft. Smith so I could stay off my back. I/we decided that a prone position would help my wrenched back. Jene busied himself, wandering solo through the historic area of Ft. Smith, chasing the sunset into Oklahoma before returning to take me out to dinner. (He did stop by with a Vietnamese sandwich for lunch and it was tasty).
Wednesday morning, we packed our bags, had breakfast at the motel, Corey called, the camera arrived, he picks it up and comes back to finish packing the car. At his suggestion, we stop for gas and he wants to get a spare key made for the car. We try an auto parts place, naw, try ACE across the street. Jene quickly returns with a key in hand and I put it in the ignition but it didn’t fit. He returns with another and I put it in, a snug fit , and viola the car starts. I turn the car off and it wouldn’t turn any further than accessory which meant I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition. It’s a 100 degrees out and we are in the parking lot trying our damndest. Go get the guy to wiggle it out because I certainly don’t want to break it in the lock. Keymaker comes out, takes my place behind the wheel and struggles for 20 minutes with a locking wrench, returns with a can of DW40 and manages to stray the steering column but can’t seem to get any in the keyhole. Returns with the manager and the kid who made the original key that didn’t fit at all. An hour later we are finally on our way with the refunded $2.50 and no spare key.
By now, I’m remembering a conversation Jene and I had before leaving about taking a spare key. For the life of me, I can’t remember if I gave it to him or not – it might be on his key ring. I am afraid to ask….
The remarkable thing is that I/we remained uncommonly calm about the whole thing. I did say the F word once and I think he said shit under his breath but neither of us got angry, it was just another one of those stupid things that can happen.
Cross the state line into Ooook-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain… of course I don’t remember the lyrics but I’m singing Oooooooooo-kalhoma da,da,da,da, dee.
So far the most boring stretch of highway we’ve traversed – but it is where we caught the service road , which happens to be the famous Route 66
I’ve been on route 66 before as has Jene but you know I get excited about silly things like that – a little slice of history. Route 66, songs were writen about it and I was there with my honey.
In Oklahoma there was a number of brush fires that cropped up.. A few wind turbines whizzed passed us.
Otherwise all the land is flat and I can truly grasp the meaning of the “Trail of Tears” A vast wasteland at the time and not much more now. OK that’s not entirely true but it is a prairie, prone to severe weather and was hoping that we didn’t run into any tornadoes. Seeing one at a distance would have been exciting but I didn’t want to be chased by one.
The scenery is boring and the only thing that changed form Ooooklahoma to Texas was the type of grass growing along the roadside.
We called it a night when we made it to Amerillo, TX which happens to be the largest city in the panhandle of TX. We had a late dinner at CrackerBarrel, Jene had chicken fried steak, with fried applies and coleslaw and I had chicken fried chicken breast, with I believe canned string beans, mashed potatoes and sweet baby carrots, ummm-mmm good, Ok, not really ummm ummmm but we were hungry and it was a texas size portion (and we wonder why there is obsesity in this country).
There’s the Big Texan steak ranch which looked promising – home to the 72 oz steak – Eat it and all the trimmings (salad, bread, potato and shrimp cocktail) in an hour and its free! 35,000 have tried; 5,500 have succeeded. We’ll poke around these parts before heading to New Mexico and see what there is to see.
… until we meet again
Mary
Flights of fancy... 