get out the map, lay your finger anywhere down...

Another post about traveling.  Not interested?  thanks for stopping by anyhow.

What's 15 hours long and mind-numbingly dull?    The drive from Chicago to the MS gulf coast.

So, is it more or LESS god-awful, if you do it all at once, or you split it up into two days?

Doesn't matter, as it turns out.

Hit the road early on a friday morning, leaving Chicago in the rain.   Crappy, uncomfortable rental car full of snacks and good cheer and entertainment for a  four year old.    Just south of Kankakee, we spotted a wolf, prowling around in the median of the interstate.   Sweet!
Besides that, all we had was an ipod full of music, a cute kid, and watching for hawks to help make the miles fly by...

200 miles in, we stopped for breakfast,  At a restaurant chain known for it's rocking chairs; routing dining customers through their gift shop; and... gravy, I think.  
Tip for this restaurant chain - invest in smaller plates.  They'll make your portions LOOK bigger when you bring them to the table.

Oh, and run our damn bill up for us, please.  It's kind of annoying, making us go back to your gift shop to pay for our breakfast.  your restrooms were also located in the gift shop...

If we didn't know better, we'd begin to think you were trying to trick us into buying tacky crap in your gift shop.  
Fiona loved her new doll by the way.   At least for the first 48 hours or so.
Bastards.
Oh, and your Clove Gum was really stale.

We made it to our day one destination well within our target time, marveling at how smoothly the drive went, how easy it was, etc.  To the point that we were talking about how maybe next time, we'd go 11 hours instead of 7.5...

Blytheville, AR exists for some reason.   I'm not clear what that reason is, but in the middle of nowhere, it's a town that gets two exits on the interstate, and has every chain hotel and restaurant known to man.

And we were happy to be there.  

We explored the town a bit, being  turned away from the Holiday Inn because we were a half hour early and they wouldn't let us check in.

Almost immediately received a reminder about not judging books....  
At the local park.  Which was not in great shape.  
But it had lots of kids at it, and their moms, most of which did not appear to be in much better shape than the park.

Surprise!  they were all super nice.
The moms struck up easy conversation with us immediately, while one of the older girls offered to push Fiona on the swings, since she was pushing her little sister already.

We got more love from strangers at a park 500 miles from home, in 10 minutes, than we do at the nice parks in our middle class neighborhood at home.  

Talking in terms of getting love from strangers in parks... maybe I could have phrased that differently...

Similarly, we were treated with better customer service and kindness at the creatively named The Bookstore in Blytheville, than we receive at most retail establishments, hereabouts.  Including book ideas based on what THEIR children seemed to like, and tips on where to eat dinner.  Awesome place, The Bookstore in Blytheville, should you find yourself in the neighborhood.

The only other thing about Blytheville worth mentioning is that the coolest building in town is the one that is used to LEAVE town – the Greyhound Station.  Silver art deco, w/ a bit of neon.   It stood out like a piece of quartz floating in a cup of mud.  

Got up the next morning, packed the car, slid into the driver’s seat, and realized – all energy and “whoo hoo, this is easy!” from yesterday was gone.  

One day in a crappy, uncomfortable rental car was easy, two days… seemed like some kind of self-inflicted punishment.  

“Well, damn….” I muttered to myself, as I reluctantly turned the key in the ignition.

“this is gonna be a long day.”

TBC….