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The Son is in Arkansas

How weird is it that Eric’s first big boy road trip had him sleeping in Arkansas last night?

Yep. Arkansas. And today he’ll be driving through Oklahoma, right past Medicine Park, Lawton and Ft. Sill, which is where Hubby and I spent a significant amount of time exactly one week ago.

It’s pure coincidence, but strange. This is the first time Eric has driven any significant distance on his own. He’s actually on his way to Wichita Falls, Texas. That’s where his former(?) girlfriend is stationed. She joined the Air Force in late 2008. Eric’s going to visit with her.

He would have flown, except he’s too young to rent a car. And they’ll actually be going to some anime convention in Dallas this weekend. So he needed some wheels.

I think it’s cool that he’s out exploring the world. All by himself. My baby isn’t such a baby anymore.

He’d probably get a good chuckle out of me posting this picture for the world to see. I took it as a joke after he received his first mail from Heather. I told him she’d get a kick out of seeing how excited he was to get her card. I doubt he ever sent it to her. ‘Cause he’s a boy. And they’re like that.

He never reads my Blog, so you can all just chuckle for him. He looks a bit scruffy, but, again, he’s a boy and just doesn’t care.

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Back to Reality

Vacations can’t last forever. After a blissful week touring Oklahoma/Arkansas, we’re back at home. But, since yesterday was Memorial Day, we had a bonus day off. Wanna know how we celebrated?

We got to spend the day with grandson, Joey, who will be two in July. His big sister, Brianna (age 8), won an essay contest. She was asked to write about what it means to be part of a military family. One of her prizes was tickets to the Orioles’ baseball game for the family. She was interviewed for the local news and everything!

Joey is a bit young to sit through a ball game, so he spent the afternoon with us.

Here he is eating lunch with his proud Pop.

After lunch, he spent a good bit of time riding this train around the house.

Boy, does that train bring back memories. It is actually Eric’s train. Though he hasn’t used it for a while (he’ll be 20 this year), he sure did love riding that thing. It’s quite a hit with Joey, too.

In between trips around the house, he used his G (that’s me!) as a jungle gym…

We also watched the baseball game on TV, hoping for a glimpse of Brianna’s television debut. Every time Joey saw a man in uniform, he would say, “My Daddy!”

Joey got to snack a bit, too. On Cheez-its. Meg was quite interested in sharing. Belle was too interested in plotting the capture of the squirrels in our backyard to care.

Joey did eventually crash out on Pop’s lap.

When Pop had to make a potty run, I got to hold Joey.

There’s just something about having this cute, little, apple-juice-smelling baby asleep on my lap that made me want to grab a few winks while I could, too!

All in all, it was a pleasant day. It almost makes having to ease back into the reality of everyday life and work worthwhile.

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Six More to Go

I finally decided to update the “places I’ve been” map. Actually, it is just the US states I have visited. My list of other countries is woefully short. But that’s cool, because I really enjoy seeing the different areas of the US.

The ones I have yet to set foot in are Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Hawaii.

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The Oklahoma-Arkansas Trip Report

I arrived home safely last night. Hubby dropped me off at the Little Rock airport yesterday (Friday) at about 1:45 PM. That’s central time, by the way. Then he continued toward home. He stopped for the night just west of Nashville in Dickson, Tennessee. And he arrived home just after 8:00 PM tonight (Saturday). That was 750 miles of riding today alone!

It was quite a trip. What you see above is the back of Hubby’s helmet. I saw a LOT of that!

Here’s a screen shot from Hubby’s GPS that shows his total trip mileage.

Remember, I cheated. I flew to Oklahoma City because I don’t like long rides.

But Hubby tricked me. I ended up being in the saddle for about 1,000 miles anyway!

It was a nice trip, though. I am not complaining. The weather was perfect. Oklahoma was quite big, and quite beautiful. Arkansas looked a lot like West Virginia, just on a larger scale.

The thing I got most tired of, besides staring at the back of Hubby’s helmet, was smelling dead stuff. When you’re in a car, you don’t realize how aromatic road kill can be! I saw HUNDREDS of dead armadillos. We saw quite a few live critters, too. You’ll see lots of animals in the pics, if you look. But I also saw a couple of coyotes, which I didn’t capture on film, lots and lots of turtles, a whole slew of vultures, plus innumerable cows, horses, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, etc. I saw a cowboy, too! Not Marlboro Man, unfortunately. Apparently Pioneer Woman and her clan live further north in Oklahoma than the areas we covered.

Wanna see some of the pictures we ended up with? There are a mix of images Hubby and I both shot. Quite a few were taken by me with Hubby’s camera while I was riding on the back of his bike. I hope you enjoy the scenery as much as we did!

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The Road to Mena

I do have quite a few pics from Oklahoma, believe it or not. But there’s not a good photo editing program on Hubby’s computer, which I need for resizing and uploading. So the posting of pics will just have to wait until I get home.

Most of the pics anyway. I just had to post this one shot of the road to Mena across the Talimena National Scenic Byway.

It is far more mountainous here in Arkansas than I expected.

Oklahoma was beautiful, but in a much different way. As you’ll see when I finally post the pics I took. Sorry to make you wait.

For now, we have another 300+ mile ride today, so I better get ready…

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All is Well in Arkansas

We did make it safely to Oklahoma. But the place we were staying, cool as it was, did not have Internet access.

Today, after riding 320+ miles, we are in Arkansas. Mena, Arkansas to be exact. It is west and slightly south of Little Rock.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll be more energetic and will post some pictures.