Little Rock to Elk City

We're up and ready to go, but there is some serious rain falling at the moment, so we'll take our time and see if it clears off. What we're not facing is Hurricane Sandy on the east coast, or snow and cold temperatures up north.

Destination today, Elk City TX. Here's the route.

Holiday Inn Express was a good choice for this night. Lots of little extras, and a great shower head. Coupons paid off again as our rate dropped from $120 to $74 with the coupon. They certainly take hot breakfast serious, best so far by a country mile.

A couple of notes regarding yesterday. About 50 miles before Memphis we saw our first cotton fields, a sure sign that we're in the south. On the west side of Memphis we crossed the Mississippi River, and you can't help thinking of the history connected with this river.

Highway work took us off the Interstate for an hour or so, we took an alternate route that ran parallel to I-40. What we got was a small glimpse at rural Arkansas.

Hazen AR - Parking two hour maximum

Trade in little towns is mostly dried up and abandoned. Very sad. Still, someone is always doing business and we ran into acres of rice farms. Rice farms in the American south? I'm going to have to Google rice farms.

Over the last few years I've passed through this area many times, and in the early years I was often found chugging along on the secondary roads, but no more, like everyone I'm seeing America from the Interstates at 65 mph.  If only for an hour or so, it was good to be doing the back roads again, even though The Coach was feeling all the bumps.

There was a sign in the service station where I stopped for gas looking for staff, including managers. They were offering $7.15 an hour.