Three Cities, Two Rivers and a Traffic Jam

First Morning On The Road

Sleep was good for the first four hours or so, then my EST clock caught-up to CST and I just laid there for a while. Part of me just wanted to get out of bed and start the morning, but I forced myself to get more sleep given how long yesterday was and how long my drive was going to be today.

Once I did get out of bed, though, it was fun putting into practice all of the things that I’d been formulating in my mind for the past few months. The big one was exercise. The last thing I wanted to do was haul weights around, even if they were simply dumbells will small plates, so I decided to buy a couple sets of resistance bands and a gimmick for the door. There was a concern that it wouldn’t feel like much of a work-out, but after about 40 minutes of with them I was surprised by how good I felt. Combined with my yoga sessions and hiking, I expect to stay in shape during this trip.

Packing

One thing that made me happy was how naturally I fell back into rearranging what I packed so that it all fits as efficiently as possible in my car, which feels like a real life game of Tetris when you drive a small, two-door compact. It took me about 21 minutes to get the things from my room into my car and I expect to get that trimmed-down to about 15 minutes or less by the time this trip is over.

Departure

On the way out of town, I drove a bit up the road towards Mammoth Cave so I could take some pictures of the wild exhibits along the way. You could stay in this area, not only for visits to Mammoth Cave, but also to see Dinosaur World, a Haunted Village complete with escape rooms, old timey Western shopping plazas and more rocks for sale than you’d know what to do with. After the photo shoot and grabbing a souvenir from the biggest dinosaur-related park in the midwest, my seven hour drive to Hot Springs, Arkansas, began.

Enjoying the Drive

This drive wasn’t anything I was looking forward to because it was essentially about getting from Point A to Point B. Once the clouds broke and the sun came out, though, I rolled my windows down, turned-up the music and was able to enjoy the task of simply driving and taking it all in. While there wasn’t anything of note along the way, I found it interesting that I could watch the trees fill-up with leaves as I drove further south. And, the Mississippi River… each time I see it, I’m not prepared for how big it is, and in this area, based-on how much wet land surrounds the river, I think it’s even bigger than it looks. The playlist for the day included what I thought were appropriate selections: Loretta Lynn, The Cramps and CCR.

A Drawn-Out Ending

When I’m about an hour and a half outside of Hot Springs, I begin hitting traffic jams and accidents, which adds about 45 minutes to the trip. To be honest, the people in western Tennessee and Arkansas drive like they just discovered automobile a few years ago. People are passing in the merging lane on the right, crossing three lanes of traffic, and driving the speed limit in the passing lane like it’s what you’re supposed to do. For the most part, I was content keeping the car on cruise and letting people in as they needed to speed things up.

Arrival

It was great to reach Hot Springs around 6 o’clock, get the car gassed-up and the windshield cleaned-up, and check into my room. The first room was noisy due to a connecting door, but the clerk was nice enough to move me. Ground floors are the way to go when you have a car-load of bins to unpack. This will probably be my last thermal day given the fact it’s 80 degrees and 70 percent humidity here.