We woke up at Craigs house, ate breakfast and packed up. It was a nice stop to see him and sleep indoor. My allergies thanked me with less swollen eyes in the morning.
The favorite of the road trip has been a candy called juicy drop gummies. They are small sugar coated gummy candies shaped like a bowl. The package comes with a pen that squirts sour gel into the bowl. This allows you to control the sour taste and make it custom. It also gives you something to do. Huge hit and so far no mess.
Mike and I had a good chuckle at some of the names of towns along I-30 and I-40. We passed through Texarkana (right on the Texas and Arkansas border) and later Arkadelphia. Mike got silly and listed off many other bistate combo names like Arkarado and Arkafornia.
Perhaps the part of the trip the boys were most looking forward to was diamond mining at Crater of Diamond State Park in Mulfreesboro, AK. It turned out to be a lot of hard work digging and sifting without any results. It was still a neat experience though. And we had a nice discussion about wedding proposals and diamond rings afterwards.
I should also add it was terribly hot and muggy. We were all dripping with sweat. I have never seen Aaron sweat like that before. A nice family gave us the sifters they had made and brought. They were leaving and didn't want to take them home. We passed them on as we left. It saved us on renting. Very thoughtful and kind.
We drove through quite a down pour in Little Rock. I think Luke called it "the most epic storm he has ever seen". Scarlett, who gets uneasy in the car wash, was pretty entertained. The storm was right on top of us for a while, thunder and lightning all in chorus at once.
We drove over the Mississippi River on a huge cool bridge. The west side of Memphis seems a little rough. We saw a pink tricked out Crown-Vic raised with wagon style wheels and rims that had neon lighting. The boys has never seen anything like that before. We saw a church with a hand painted sign and purple steeple. Luke said, "I think there are a lot of black people here. That's all I have seen so far."
Aaron said, "Yes! Finally!!"
We pulled in and found our camp site. The roar of the frogs and bugs was quite loud and consistent. I have never heard frogs that loud. Sounded like an engine. The kids played on the playground. I found a container for Luke to hold the fireflies he was catching, but he soon switched to catching frogs. After dinner they caught 18. He made me listen to one of them who would squeal when he pulled it out of the container. "Augh, he's so cute! Can you hear him mom?"
We made them release them all before bed.
We had a bit of a scare wheen Mike told me the A/C wasn't working. My heart sank. I did more investigating and found where it was unplugged under the seat board of the table area. Whew! That would have been a rough night of sleep without the a/c.
We stayed at T O Fuller State Park. I give it 2 stars overall. It was beautiful. However it was right on the water, super humid, tons of bugs, stray cats with fleas and apparently airplanes fly overhead all night. Mike went running in the morning and found a bunch of shanties. Also the bathrooms were fine, but not great. Lots of cobwebs. Free ice machine was nice.
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