Healthvues

We all didn’t sleep well last night (except Alex), so we knew today was going to be slow, lackluster travel day. And it was. Our plan was to get to Fort Smith, Arkansas, just south of Siloam Springs (the place we lived when we adopted Alex and our next multi-day stop). The weather was sunny but windy, making driving a bit challenging with this big sail we’re dragging behind us, but really not bad. The only thing on our itinerary was to check out the newly opened Clinton Presidential library in Little Rock. We weren’t sure if it would be open, being the day after Thanksgiving, but when we pulled off the highway, we were met with throngs of people trying to get in and no place to park. (Later that night in our hotel room, the news said that there were over 9000 people waiting to get in!). All the bleachers were still up from the opening ceremonies. The place looked impressive – at least from the vantage point of the Suburban – but we turned around and kept driving. Next time.

This is the same route we took to Siloam Springs almost 4 years ago when we flew into Little Rock to adopt Alex. It’s funny how many of the TV commercials, names and places we remember from our last trip. Interstate 40 is MUCH better this time – we remember it being a washboard drive. We ate lunch at the same restaurant, El Chico, in which Spike almost choked 4 years ago* - even pointed out the exact table to Annie. The food was great and went down easily this time.

(*For those who didn’t read our adoption journal, Spike choked on a piece of beef at this Mexican restaurant on the first night we landed in Arkansas to adopt Alex. I had to perform the Heimlich several times to get it dislodged. A cruel irony to the start of our adoption journey at the time.)

Found a pizza place and pulled into our hotel room fairly early. We were all pretty beat so an early night was welcomed. We watch the Weather Channel every night and we realized we picked the best day to travel across Arkansas – severe thunderstorms blew through during the night, in fact there was a tornado watch just south of us (funnel clouds were spotted). Of course we miss our friends back in Syracuse, but seeing those lake effect bands makes us glad we’re not there! Sorry people… Maryland spanked Memphis, so it was a good day.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Westward Expansion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.