December 1, Mt. Pleasant, TX

Somewhere in NC there's a place that must be missing some ants.  I'm not sure whether they're capital ants or mountain ones, but they are enjoying the travels too, unless I find them before they see me...


This a.m. started off with temps at 31 degrees and the sky had  very few wispy thin clouds stretched across the beautiful blue.   As we went down the road the temperature rose rapidly in the cab, but there was a chilly wind outside.

We really enjoyed our time in Arkansas, but it will be a few years before they are awarded the "Good Road" medal.  It was quite a surprise to us, as we drove down the roads, to see acres and acres of solar panels.  That was something we had not expected to see.  After asking around, someone said they thought that Maybelline was doing something about trying to become more of a green company and trying to use solar power, but they weren't sure.

I-30 took us by the town of Hope, President Clinton's birth place and we just drove into town to ride past the house and got a good chuckle as we passed a laundry mat named Hog Wash.  I thought that was a good pun on the Razorbacks of Arkansas.  Yesterday at the Clinton Library they had a really interesting and fascinating exhibit of Lego art.  As you walked in the door there was a life-size razorback hog in Lego red and the entire Clinton complex along the Arkansas River.  After passing that part of the exhibit there were life size people in red, green yellow, orange and white bricks.  One in particular was entitled "X-Ray".  The person was there except for the hole in the chest in which hung a heart.  Another that I really liked was a four foot head minus a skull and out of the open crown there were small machines, books, people, spilling out and strange things that I could not identify.  "Ideas" was it's name.   The artist had also done a big buck!  There was a three foot one hundred dollar bill complete with a portrait of Franklin; self-portrait of the artist; a grey man kneeling and looking at the ground.  He was missing his hands that were in piles below the ends of his arms.  I suppose the piece most people will remember the longest is the one of a giant pop-up storybook.  Coming up from the pages was an almost five foot castle complete with towers and turrets and a sail boat on the moat.  The artist had written a poem and it was on the pages of the story book as well as the wall.  It seems the prince lived in the castle with the cleaning lady and the girl who was in love with him sailed around the moat endlessly because she was afraid to leave the boat.  After years of asking her to take the risk to jump, promising to catch her,and she not doing it, the prince finally jumped into the boat with her.  Now neither could return to the castle and the cleaning lady was the lady of the house.  Moral:  If you never take a chance, you may never go anywhere. 

Junnie is training us.  We are learning that if he rolls on his back and gives a persistent mew it means, "You want me to use the litter box---NOW!" At lest he has calmed down three times in a row after we put him in the bathroom of the trailer for a few minutes about an hour into our daily travels.  He has also decided he is a Lemming.  He sits on his haunches and has a wonderful time looking, sniffing, ear twitching and chirping ... especially at the fly that beat me coming inside tonight.

Well, that's it for today.  The weather does not look too promising for Saturday and we want to get beyond Dallas-Fort Worth.  I know there are lots of things to see there, but there's also lots of traffic and with pulling a trailer, I'm a chicken.  I suppose I should re-read what I wrote about the moral of the storybook Lego piece.....

Type at ya later and blessings,
Two brave and one timid traveler