I can’t get an early start no matter how hard I plan it! Today, it was due to a lost pair of sunglasses…at least they weren’t prescription! But knowing that it was going to be hot and sunny, I decided that I needed to get another pair. So I gassed up the truck, stopped by the local RiteAid, and proceeded toward the mighty Mississippi.
After crossing the Mississippi, I spent most of the day in the Natural State. NO, not NAKED…Arkansas! That’s the state nickname. Like the Volunteer State for Tennessee and the Tarheel State for North Carolina. Arkansas reminded my a lot of NC: flat and open in the east and hilly in the west. It might have been natural at one time, but all those rice paddies were rather odd-looking. Did you know that Arkansas is the leading producer of rice in the US? I’m learning a lot on this trip…now if I can just keep up with my sunglasses.
I did not plan to make the rest of the trip today, but once I crossed the Oklahoma line and wasn’t tired, I decided to keep going. Suddenly, I thought it was raining, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Bugs! All kinds of bugs! For miles and miles, they continued to sacrifice themselves like kamikazes on my windshield! When I stopped for gas again, I cleaned the windshield, but more just took their place. Talk about a bat smorgasbord!
Tomorrow is a big day – I get to meet my roommate, become familiar with the campus, and hopefully meet the professor I will be working with for the next eight weeks. For now, though, I am ready to turn in for the night…or I should say, morning.
Oh, yes…the Tennessee highways appear reddish because some of the gravel they mix with the asphalt binder is rust-colored. I’m still trying to find out exactly what it is, as some of the larger cobbles used for erosion control are partly gray and partly rust. Whatever it is, it must be quarried in Tennessee – that’s the only area I’ve seen it. Anyone have any ideas?