Saturday, August 18, ’12
H-85 RAIN L H 85 L 63 H H 82/65 M H 82 L 60
L-69 C H 96 L 76
Bear update: The Bear says I Have Escaped Tennessee And Julius McCoy Party. TR says, “I hope he doesn’t have any relatives in the Ozarks.” Moose say, “You already got one in your house, Bear!” Lou says we will have a Putlitz Is From The Ozarks Party. We will serve Ozarkian Foods.
We woke up to clouds. Will they last? They lasted, and the temperature in Texarkana climbed to 85. It rained during dinner.
Tucson 90/73 T-STORMS Brooklyn 79/64 T-STORMS
We woke up at 7:30AM. We got dressed in the dark because it was pouring rain and thundering outside. We almost overslept, assuming it was much earlier in the morning. We went to breakfast in the lobby. Fortunately there was an overhang. We loaded first the Juniormobile, then the Bearmobile, under the overhang while it was still raining. By the time we left, it had stopped. We loaded up the car and checked out of room 125 at 10:53AM, late but earlier than we had feared because of the weather. The dog was ready to break down the motel door. I took a photo. The first pit stop was at exit 114 in Benton. We got gas at Valero and I went to the ATM. The highest amount you could pick was $60.00. It was the first ATM machine I’ve ever seen that spit out $10’s instead of $20’s. The 2nd pit stop was at exit 98A McDonalds in Malvern. We ate lunch there. The 3rd pit stop was at exit 73, the Arkadelphia McDonalds. This is the McDonalds that we didn’t eat at on the way up in June. We ate at the Western Sizzlin’ right next to it. Back then we rejected McDonalds because of the poor A/C. Today it wouldn’t matter as much. It’s not as hot with all the rain. The 4th pit stop was at the rest area at exit 54. The dog enjoyed the grass and trees. We saw what at first seemed to be a giant black lab. We guessed he was bred with a great dane. I have a picture and a movie. The dog was very placid, not at all like labs. The 5th pit stop was at exit 30 at Hope. We stopped at the McDonalds to have cones. We drove 30 more miles to cross the state line into Texas. We returned to the Petsmart that we stopped at in June. I remembered that to the left around the corner of the parking lot was a bathroom. It was a Chick Fil A. I took Putlitz for a ride. Kenny stayed with him at the bird cage while I shopped for a Bear Halloween costume, dog toys, dog biscuits, cat crunchies, PPP, and a clicker. We then drove back to the first La Quinta we saw. It was the Texas La Quinta on State Line Avenue. We checked in and canceled the one we had for the La Quinta on the other side of the street in Arkansas. We didn’t want to have to cross the Texas state line again tomorrow. We went to dinner at a nearby Burger King. I ordered a seersucker bedspread and two matching shams on Orvis.com. They were cheaper than the ones on LandsEnd.com, and I needed a king’s size bedspread. I had it shipped back to Tucson.
Next Rest Area 130 Miles — Is This Arkansas? 8/18/12
The rest areas on both sides of the interstate were closed at exit 202 coming into Arkansas after we crossed the Mississippi. But the rest areas themselves weren’t under construction. The construction workers were merely using the westbound one as a convenient place to store logs and other materials. There was no logical reason they couldn’t have left it open with cones lining the entrance. Is this just cheap or do they have an odd sense of humor? Either way it’s irresponsible. They posted a sign: NEXT REST AREA 130 MILES!

Postcards MayBe Going Out Of Style, But Not Even One Of Arkansas? 8/18/12
There are people I still send postcards to, yes the kind you can pick up and put in the snail mail instead of the email. Two of these people are my parents who don’t have email. I’ve been noticing year after year that it’s harder and harder to get postcards and where you can still find them — places like national parks in the USA, for instance — it gets harder and harder to find new one available. But still on this long trip from Tucson to Brooklyn, Brooklyn to England and Germany and back to Brooklyn, and finally from Brooklyn back to Tucson, I’ve usually been able to find postcards to send every day — with one notable exception. That exception is Arkansas. We entered the state on the Mississippi River and are now driving towards Texarkana to exit it. I’ve yet to find one postcard for sale anywhere. I’ve had to make do with La Quinta promotional postcards from the La Quinta in Little Rock Otter Creek where we stayed last night. But the irony there — last night when I asked the front desk clerk for one even they ran out!
The QM2 is back in Hamburg for the last time this year. It again reminds me of the wee hours of the morning of July 15 when we came ashore in Hamburg ourselves. I’ll never forget the sound of the people lining the river banks cheering and screaming, waking us up at 4:00AM. I wonder if they are doing that now as I see it beginning to get light out.
Postcard:
We drove from Little Rock to Texarkana. We stopped at the McDonalds in Hope, Arkansas where former President Bill Clinton was born. We drove across the Texas border and went to Petsmart. We wheeled the cat around the store and bought the dog’s birthday gifts for August 22.
Dog/Cat Report:
Sabaka got a bath tonight. He enjoyed the stop at the rest area halfway between Arkadelphia and Hope. He met a large black lab. At least it seemed to be one at first. He seemed to be bred with a great dane. He was very placid, but he got Sabaka going.
The cat wanted to sleep this morning. Who wouldn’t when it was raining and thundering outside the motel window in Little Rock? It wasn’t the kind of day to do much of anything. He liked his visit to the Petsmart store in Texarkana, though. He got to sit in front of the bird cages and listen to the birds tweet. Will he get to do it again before El Paso?

Still no contract . . .
What next?

Saturday, August 18, ’12
1)Valero gas Big Red Benton gas cash $30.00
2)McDonalds Malvern lunch Bear Cash $25.09
3)Petsmart: PPP, dog toys, dog bones, Bacon Strips, cat crunchies, clicker, Bear costume Bear Cash $80.26
4)McDonalds Hope cones Bear Cash $4.25
5)La Quinta Texarkana room 147 cash $71.19
6)Burger KIng Texarkana dinner Bear Cash $28.25
$5.81
____________________________________________
TOT: $244.85

Orvis.com: seersucker king bedspread shipped UPS ground $115.62
Orvis.com: 2 seersucker shams shipped UPS ground $72.78