Technical Difficulties

Greetings from Dothan, Alabama! We arrived here at about 3:00 PM and are situated in a lovely suite.  I have unpacked our things and have us set up for the next ten days or so.  Hopefully the rest of our trip goes better than the launch!

We decided to get a few things done around Zoe Cottage before we left yesterday, so we didn't get off until the early afternoon with the objective of reaching Maumelle, AR to collect on a free night at a hotel there before it got dark.  We had to take a little extra time to make sure the stray cat didn't get locked into our garage when we left.  He had taken up residence there after we got home from errands and scared a few more gray hairs into Ornery when he opened the kitchen door to find some eyes glaring at him from the darkened garage.  Then our next door neighbor wanted to visit a minute.  Travel was nice, cloudy but not rainy, and the rental car (Dodge Durango) very comfortable. By 8:00 we had succumbed to the exhaustion that had been chasing us all week, snug in a firm bed and darkened room.

At 11:45 PM the fire alarm for the building went off.  There was NO sleeping through that--it was LOUD!! It blared for about a minute or two, then shut off.  We climbed back into the bed and made a second attempt. Fifteen minutes later, the alarm clock went off--not any noise other than a clicking sound as it flashed like a strobe off and on.  Ornery ended up putting a pillow over it to get the light to quit shining in the room.  BACK to bed the third time.  It took a little while, but we finally both went into a deep sleep--only to be awakened again by the fire alarm at 2:00 AM.  It went on and on and on before we finally got up, Ornery took a shower, I packed our stuff, and we headed down to the lobby to check out--clearly there was to be no more sleep there. They refunded our points (essentially gave us our money back), and we were on the road by 2:20.

The bad thing about leaving in the middle of the night was the abbreviated sleep we got, but the good thing was that we didn't have to share the road for the first several hours of travel! We watched the sunrise over Lake Providence, LA, as it turned the water to a fiery orange and filtered through the trees along the waters edge. It was so peaceful the events of the night drained away.

People were really friendly the whole way here.  Everywhere we stopped, we were greeted with smiles and kindness. I love living in America when it is like that!  We passed a number of Mt. Zion MB Churches, which we debated about as to whether MB stood for Missionary Baptist or Mennonite Brethren.  I think it is the former, but I could be mistaken.  There were dozens of them along the route in practically every little burg we drove through.

We stopped at one convenience store for a pit stop somewhere in Mississippi.  On the way to the bathrooms, we passed through a little cafe portion of the building and saw a big sign advertising the "Cluck and Squeal" special--chicken and pulled pork.  It sounded really tasty, but not at 7:00 in the morning!  The toilets there "flushed with enthusiasm" as Ornery shared with me once we were on the road again.  We had a good chuckle about that--anything to keep our eyes open! :)

We also discovered that in Mississippi, trailer parks are called "Planned Manufactured Home Communities." There was no disguising the fact, however, that they really were trailer parks.

The bugs in Arkansas and Louisiana were prolific this spring, and we helped decrease the population by several thousand who met with our rather large windshield at a rapid rate.  Extra stops for windshield duty were required since we were driving into the sun which reflected with distracting glare on the poor benighted critters. Road kill was also at a rather higher rate than usual, although the only thing we hit was a cup that fell off the top of someone's car while driving down the road.

We saw a couple of coyotes slinking around the edges of the road, sleek and well fed--not like the mangy looking things we have in Oklahoma.  The first one had evidently just tried to tangle with a skunk--it was an odorific portion of the road!

Since we drove the southern route instead of going through Memphis and Birmingham, we didn't see any of the devastation from the tornadoes, but we saw some swollen rivers and full bar-ditches.  The crops were looking great, especially the corn in Mississippi. We always enjoy seeing healthy farmland.

And so begins the first week away from our new home.