What's so great about the plains, anyway?

Andy here, with another update. It's almost over...we have successfully completed the transcontinental leg of our trip to Indiana. Thursday morning we woke up in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and by Friday night we were in the Paris of the Piedmont, Carrboro, North Carolina. That's just over 1,700 miles in two days of driving. What caused such a hasty decision? Mostly it was that, after a solid week of living out of a different hotel each night, we were ready to stop someplace for a bit. Also, several hours of the view to the right didn't encourage lingering long, either. So there was a moment on Wednesday afternoon as we approached Oklahoma City where we had to make a decision: stop and see the Federal Building Memorial or burn through into Arkansas with hopes of making it to NC the next day. Mike D spoke highly of the Fed Memorial, so we were considering it, but then we spotted a sign for Toby Keith's bar in OKC and that was enough to make us drive on. We refueled on coffee in Midwest City, OK and didn't stop for the night until Forrest City, Arkansas.

The next morning we crossed the Mississippi into Memphis, driving on until we reached Natchez Trace State Park in Tennessee. The plan was to let Ramona chase the ball a little, but they had a lake and no one was around, so we decided to let her swim. As soon as she had been in the water for a couple of minutes two nice men who worked for the parks department came up to us, I assumed to run us out of the park for having a dog off leash / in the lake. Instead they told us that if we needed bathrooms and / or showers, there was a heated bathhouse across the lake. After a little more small talk, they wished us well and were on their way. You can't beat southern hospitality. On the way out of the park (a 45 m.p.h. road winding through forest) our way was temporarily blocked by a riderless horse, trotting down the middle of the road straight for our car. Bear in mind it was 9:30 in the morning on a Friday in February and the park was empty. This horse was definitely not supposed to be here, but I don't think I've ever seen a horse so happy. We briefly thought it was going to go right over the car, but at the last second it got back into its own lane and continued to trot freely in the direction of the heated showers by the lake.

We made it through the Great Smokey Mountains and Asheville, NC by nightfall and arrived at Elizabeth's parents house last night, where we were reunited with Sydney. We will regroup here for a few days before the four of us head to Indy in the middle of next week. More to come later....

Total milage so far: 4,519