Day Three: Dickson, Tennessee to Arkadelphia, Arkansas

Another day of high adventure!  Another day of occasional rain, sometimes heavy, sometimes misty, we spent our 17th wedding anniversary in Arkansas, of all places.  Everyone slept in a bit, so our day started with breakfast at the motel in Dickson, Tennessee.  It was just ok, as usual.  We didn't get on the road until 9:45am, which was fine because we didn't have any real plans for the day.  Our first stop was Memphis, Tennessee.  We rode a monorail across the Mississippi River to Mud Island, a nice park right downtown.  Everyone enjoyed the ride.  It wasn't crowded at all for a summer weekend.  On the island we checked out a 3 dimensional miniature replica of the entire Mississippi River.  It was fun, but a bit hot out to really enjoy everything.  Still, we spent a couple hours out of the van, so that was nice.  The rain began after we got into Arkansas.  Another impossible state line sign, so we settled for a quick shot as we drove by.  Everything about Arkansas has been almost comically unimpressive.  The roads are in bad shape, the weather has stunk, the rest stop bathrooms are disgusting, and the traffic was terrible.  We got stuck in a bumper to bumper jam that had us stopped cold on I-40 at one point.  I had plenty of time to get out of the van and shoot a bunch of pictures it was so bad.  We lost an hour to that one.  When we got near Little Rock the sun finally popped delivering a splendid double rainbow.  That's the lone redeeming thing that has happened in Arkansas so far.  We stopped to find some water shoes for Justin and baseball hats for Joshua.  We found the shoes but struck out on the baseball hats.  We'll try again for those tomorrow.  Dinner was Pizza Hut, followed by dessert at McDonald's.  The pool at the Hampton Inn was warm, but crowded and noisy.  Tomorrow we ramble on to Dallas, Texas.  If the sun is shining we'll get Justin behind the wheel.

License Plates spotted: Lousiana, New Mexico, California, Arkansas, Colorado, Arizona, Quebec, Canada