So I just realized that you are probably all waiting on baited breath to hear about the rest of my road trip. And if not, feel free to leave me to my delusions.
Interestingly enough, the selling feature of Amarillo Texas is that if you can eat a 72oz steak in an hour it is free. Seriously. They started billboarding about it in New Mexico, and it is even advertised on our hotel key cards. Americana at its finest.
After a brief stay in Texas, we got on the road again heading for Arkansas. A real, honest to goodness tumbleweed was blowing on the road in Oklahoma, clearly one of the high points of my day. We only spent about 9 hours in the car on Sunday, eventually arriving in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, because Sarah knows people there and we could stay for free. This is a key element in road trips. (Perhaps one day I will exploit all of you in a similar fashion. Exciting possibilities, right?!)
Eureka Springs is a very neat place. It is all hilly, so the town is built on like, three different levels, and is full of galleries and boutiques. It seemed like the kind of place where you could pass your time window shopping and exploring and have a fabulous couple of days. Apparently it is also a popular wedding destination. Other features include a ‘passion play’ (Easter story), bible zoo (in season) and a seven story Jesus. No joke.
When left Arkansas the next day on our way to St. Louis to see the Blues play the Dallas Stars. I will say this for the American Midwest: it is very windy, and not nearly as flat as I had anticipated. We got to see part of Branson while on this path, and we put it on our list of ‘Odd Americana that we need to go back and explore’. It seems pretty nifty at first glance.
We made it to St. Louis in time for the game, and I was surprised at how dedicated Blues fans are; they cheer, they dance, they all have jerseys. The game itself was nothing overly spectacular, but I do enjoy watching live hockey, so it was fun regardless.
After the game we drove six hours to Madison, Wisconsin, to Sarah’s other house, and when we got there at 3:30 am it was cold but there was no snow. That was not the case the next afternoon when we were finally ready to leave the house and go exploring (read: shopping). We stayed in Wisconsin until Wednesday morning and then we headed back to Canada.
Someone, in their infinite wisdom, (and perhaps Brent can tell me who), decided that the I-90 should go through Chicago. This was somewhat nice because I got to see the city as we drove past, but less nice as we hit stop and go traffic at 3:00 in the afternoon. Good times. The other tragic factor was that Port Huron was all torn up, something dad says they do every two years whether they need to or not, and we got to the bridge before we found the duty free store. So disappointing.
Despite this tragedy, we arrived alive and well at my place at midnight on Wednesday.
You might be interested to know that apparently all I-44 is interested in is sex and fireworks. Seriously. You should see the billboards.
And they even went off without a hitch! I will tell you all about them!
Just not now because my fingers are frozen.
