Cross Country Day 2: Arkansas + Texas

In the morning of the second day we crossed over the Mississippi River. At that particular point of the river, it was in no way as grand as I had expected. This let down was just the first of the morning, as we drove through  the worst state of our trip. It wasn't hot or bumpy or anything that made the driving conditions bad. It was just an ugly and boring state. As we had decided that Tennessee wouldn't be a terrible place to live, we had also decided that there would be no way ever that we would move to anywhere in Arkansas.

When we saw the signs for Texarkana, on the border of Texas and Arkansas, after being amazed by the lack of originality, we were excited that Texas was on the horizon. Almost instantaneously, the sun poked out and the landscape rolled over to cliche images of oil rigs and wind mills. We passed through Dallas and Fort Worth, which were both very large cities. As we were coming up on a place called Weatherford the sky darkened. We thought, "Oh Yay, a Texas storm." Little did we know, everything is bigger in Texas.

The hail began to come down, smaller at first, and then golf ball sized. The rained poured like buckets and we soon realized we were the only ones left on the road. We pulled off and tried to find shelter. An abandoned gas station was full of cars hiding under it's awning. A very nice lady saw that we had tons of cargo on top of our car getting pummeled and let us take her spot under the shelter. After a while the rain let up and people began to get on the road so we checked the cargo and followed. Luckily our car came out of the storm with few dings and no windshield cracks. We later realized that not everyone gets so lucky in those storms, which seem to be a regular occurrence. We saw so many signs for hail insurance. It was the biggest storm I've seen in my life that wasn't a hurricane.

Past the stormy weather, there was the most beautiful sunset, complete with lightning and a rainbow. This lead to us again saying, "Everything is bigger in Texas." We drove through the lovely brown light until it was dark, and then for a few hours more to Abilene. The day had been long and we were happy to be out of the car, but I know the animals were happier. And so began our nightly shuffle of cat carriers and bicycles and luggage into the hotel, just to be brought out again in a few hours. We had a feeling the next day would be hard and hot, crossing the rest of the way through Texas, all the way through New Mexico, and into Arizona.

The Mississippi.

I don't know why it is "The Natural State," there were a lot of factories.

Fire?

Cheerwine!

Little Rock

Even Persie thinks it is BLAH!

Giant Texarkana water tower.

Must be near Texas with all of those flags and stars.

Crossing over Lake Ray Hubbard.

Dallas, TX

Crazy giraffe statue with a crazy tongue.

Uh oh, where is that sun going?

That's one big sky right there.

Weatherford is where the weather happens.

Darkness is happening.

Darker.

Even darker.

And here comes the rain.

Our temporary sanctuary. Thank goodness for the abundance of abandoned gas stations in the south west.

I got a picture of a little bit of lightning! 

In front of us was a bright sun, but behind was an angry storm.

And then these big fluffy clouds started forming.

And then a rainbow happened.

And the darkness battled the light.

There are so few pictures of us together that even the blurry ones have to count.

Like cotton candy clouds.