The Journey Begins...

We got an early start out of Denton this morning, both because the girlfriend and I were very tired and because it took us longer to get everything packed into the cooler and the car than we thought it would. I drove out the first segment of the trip. The road was mostly straight and flat, and the girlfriend really is even less of a morning person than I am. She didn't manage to get any sleep like she had hoped, but at least it was an easy drive and she was able to pretty much just sit and relax. It took me a while to get my GPS unit working properly, and we had to stop a couple of times along the way to get everything set up right. I really need to get a new power cord for the laptop, because it kept coming undone and making the laptop go into sleep mode. Maybe once I get a new job, I'll take care of that.

Before we got to Arkansas, we stopped at a little gas station in Greenville. The girlfriend remembered stopping at that particular place a few times as a child when her family would go to Arkansas to visit relatives, and she said the bathrooms were always nice and clean. Apparently, things had changed rather significantly between the time she'd been there last and now, because it was pretty nasty there. I guess things do change. We got a few snacks while we were there and headed back onto the road.

We got to Arkansas just a little while ago, and I was driving, so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the "Welcome to Arkansas" sign. I tried, but we were trying to find a rest area and such, and there was construction going on, so I didn't have the camera out until we were right on the border, and I didn't get a picture snapped. Right now, we're stopped at one of the nicest rest areas that either of us has ever seen. It's new, shiny, has incredibly clean bathrooms and pretty friendly people. I snapped this little picture of the Arkansas flag flying over it, at least.



Back on the road, now. Many miles to go before we rest...