On the Road..... Day 5

I often write about staying overnight at Wal-Marts if we're just driving from Point A to Point B.  While I know this isn't for everyone, it works fine for us.  We are totally self-sufficient and could easily boondock for a week or more without needing anything.  Last night we stayed at a Wal-Mart...  and look at what we woke up to this morning...

I just cracked up laughing...  there were 21 (count 'em... twenty-one) 18 wheelers surrounding us.

Yeah, we heard a little noise last night, but I guess we slept through all the traffic that must have kept arriving as the night went on.  This must be a major resting place for those weary truckers...  not many places to stay between Little Rock and Memphis.  We look kind of dwarfed...  but, being there before any of the big rigs, we did have a nice comfy space at the end of the row.  Hilarious!

Speaking of cracking up...   I often prop my feet up on the dash, and around 10:00 this morning and I did just that...

Did a double take...  Rats!  I've got on shoes from 2 different pairs.  Now, I'm not sure whether y'all will think I'm cracking up from laughing or just plain cracking up...  but I hurried to change to a pair that looked the same.  At least I had on a right and a left shoe...  it REALLY would have been bad if I had on 2 that fit the same foot.  Hey... do you think this road trip is getting to me?

There was a lot of road construction along I40 today...  

We drove I 40 over to Memphis, but then headed up I 55 (still in Arkansas) to Missouri, then over through a little corner of Tennessee, then into Kentucky.  Lots of construction, but the traffic was never at a standstill.  We've traveled this route off and on over the years and this time there seemed to be a lot more traffic than has been in the past.

We're always looking at the cargo those big trucks are carrying...

Our lunch break today...  Doesn't that load next to us look like HUGE spark plugs?  It's fun to try to figure out what various loads are for.  

When we head up I 55, we're actually travelling parallel to the Mississippi River.  That means a lot of farm land as that land is no doubt rich in nutrients.  Today the farmers were hard at it...  burning some kind of old crop.  The smoke was so thick that it actually limited visibility along the interstate.

Kind of reminded us of the sugar cane fields down in south Texas...  when they burn the cane, there are huge billows of black smoke.  Interesting...

Change of habitat again...  this time we're into something I'm more familiar with...

Goldenrod!

I think a lot of folks are allergic to this, but even so, I think it's a lovely "weed".  Years ago, when we kept bee hives, we had a pollen extractor on a couple of our hives.  As the bees would come back home, the pollen would drop into a holding area, to be "harvested" by Bill.  Eating pollen is supposed to be good for a person... only problem is, the darned stuff made my mouth itch really bad.  So much for my experiment with pollen from goldenrod.  I still think it's beautiful, though.

And...  the scourge of the south...

Kudzu

Looks kind of pretty if you don't know what it is and how it chokes out everything else.  This invasive plant has taken over many areas...  we saw a lot of it as we drove through Tennessee and into Kentucky.

We started out around 8am...  finished for the day around 3:30 or 4pm

335 miles today...  

Only a couple more days until we're back on the farm.

(Kind of misleading as there's no farm to go home to these days...  but, we think a new concrete pad has been put down since we were back in Ohio last.    Don't know for sure until we get there)

So...  happily parked in our Wal-Mart parking space for the night...  More tomorrow.

That's All For Today!