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Issue #174, Epic Road Trip 2018, June 5, 2018




June 5, Missouri, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi

Sitting in the car in the Timberlake campground in Brandon, Mississippi, while Paige cooks waffles in the cricket. We woke up to rain this morning after a seriously long ride from Missouri yesterday - about seven hours - and a fairly muggy night. I just took a walk around in the rain. Lots of geese scampered to get out of my way.



Backtracking a bit - we didn’t leave Alley Springs Campground in Missouri until around 11. I actually wish we could have stayed at Alley Springs a little longer; but my itinerary called, and after loading the bikes back on the Cricket (it turns out that cramming them inside is not very convenient) and making a brief stop at the RV dump station, we were on our way south and east, dropping through the hilly and forested country that makes up southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Paige was navigating, and I was driving. We turned off into the Mark Twain forest through endless hillocks and gullies, with houses here and there, and hoped that we would be able to reach a gas station in time enough to fill our rapidly depleting tank. Several times we had confusion with our cell phone maps, as the satellite connection kept dropping out, but fortunately we have our good road atlas. It’s funny that we used to only rely on paper maps. Maybe we still should!

We launched in Pocahontas, Arkansas, and had some exchanges with the locals about our Cricket, one at a gas station, and another at a park where we stopped at for lunch. The kids were being especially rowdy - they couldn’t look at their tablets during the windy, curved roads, and their constant banter was driving Paige nuts.

In the park, one lady came by and wanted to take a photo of us and the Cricket. She even thought she knew Paige. The foliage is different here, and I tried using a plant-identification app to figure out what the trees were. (I was not successful, but I include what I was trying to figure out here!)





Paige took over driving before we passed through Memphis, because I felt so sleepy I could barely keep my eyes open. She was not liking highway driving with the cricket, so I took over again after we made a stop at a worn-out gas station off the highway somewhere.





Worn-out gas station
Hard to find a working pump
Stray dog looks at us

One of these children did not appreciate me taking these pictures.



Irish wilderness
Driving through Mark Twain forest
Kids sparring in back

Old schoolhouse in Alley Springs, Missouri

Missouri forest
Plentiful to settlers
Who cut it all down

Missouri backwoods
Mostly deciduous trees
Some random houses


Once in Arkansas
Sign proclaims Jesus is lord
Kids getting antsy

Dazed but still alive
Driver of wrecked Prius slumps
Next to totaled truck



She takes our photo
Delighted by cricket
And possibly us

Tobacco in lip
He admires our cricket
Arkansas gas mart




solo/group kukai
drawing/writing/photography
jonathan machen