Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Location: Hot Springs, AR

We met Brianne at Common Grounds just after 11 a.m. for breakfast.  Their breakfast was as good as or better than their breakfast, which was a nice treat.  After breakfast, Brianne picked up her black lab, Annie, and we went to nearby Gulley Park.  Data and Annie spent two hours chasing a frisbee and each other.  By the time we left, Annie was so exhausted, her teeth chattered against the frisbee as she shook with fatigue.  The park itself was not fenced in, but the dogs were too absorbed in playing to get into trouble.  There were a few other dogs walking along a looping sidewalk through the park (with their owners, of course), but there were no incidents to speak of … well, maybe two.  Data was a little overzealous at the prospect of being able to really get out and play with another dog for the first time since Denver.  Not once, but twice, he tried to mount and hump Annie … while she was pooping.  It was a burlesque image, but hilarious at the same time.  Aside from that, they played very well together, which was great.

We parted ways with Brianne and Annie at the park.  We had a great time over the last two days, so I want to thank Brianne for finding a way to hang around with us.  On our way out of town, we stopped at Panera again, where we bought soup and drinks.

We are now in Hot Springs, a town built around Hot Springs National Park, the smallest National Park.  We didn’t get into town until about 10 p.m. due to the four hour drive time, so nearly every restaurant had closed for the night, leaving us with a choice between fast food or I.H.O.P.  We settled on I.H.O.P., which wasn’t very good, but at least it was food.  Now, we are in a nearby Hampton Inn and will be heading across the street to Wal-Mart, our home for the night, shortly.  Julia is feeling normal again, so sleeping in the car shouldn’t be a problem.  The temperature is hovering around freezing, so we should be able to sleep quite comfortably in the car.

Tomorrow, we are going to spend the day in Hot Springs before heading into Little Rock for the New Year’s Eve celebration.

Here are a few photos from today.  Click “there’s more to this” to see them all, or just visit my SmugMug.

Data assaulting Annie. Continue reading ‘Day 169: Playtime’

Location: Fayetteville, AR

We got up at 11:30 a.m. feeling rested, which was particularly important for Julia, considering she has been sick. She feels much better today, but still isn’t completely back to normal.

After checking out, our first stop was the Sheridan Road Veterinary Clinic, where Data was boarded for the last few days. He was extremely excited to see us and loved playing with the new toy my mom bought him for Christmas. Data was in dire need of another type of present – food. I called a few pet food stores before striking gold with Southern Agriculture. They had his food in bags of all sizes in stock, an extremely rare find! We then set out to put another present to use – a $50 Cracker Barrel gift card from my mom.

Julia was scheduled to have an interview for another internship at 2 p.m. We arrived at the restaurant at 1:30 p.m., plenty of time to eat before her interview … or so we thought. Our food took an unusually long time to arrive, requiring Julia to leave for her interview just moments before our meal even arrived. Her interview went well and our food was pretty good (although not as good as Cracker Barrel normally tends to be, which was strange).

After breakfast, we went into downtown Tulsa to try to get a feel for the city. Unfortunately, we spent about an hour driving around downtown, most of which involved fighting our way through roadblocks and construction zones. The entire downtown area, it seems, is under construction. Frustrated and uninspired, we migrated to the suburbs and saw the 5 p.m. showing of Charlie Wilson’s War. The movie was better than I had expected, though not great. There were allusions to current affairs (bad), but no direct references to them (good). The movie wasn’t preachy and Julia Roberts didn’t look and sound as much like an enraged horse as usual, although her eyes have really sunk into the back of her head at this point.

Following the movie, we had planned to get dinner at Don Pablo’s, a well-reviewed Mexican restaurant near the theater. Much to our dismay, we discovered that the restaurant had gone out of business just a few months ago. A receptionist at a nearby hotel informed me that there were “pretty much no good local places in Tulsa” and proceeded to recommend On The Border and Johnny Carino’s, two chain restaurants. Instead, we just picked up some pizza and spaghetti from Sbarro, a fast and cheap option in a nearby mall.

After dinner, we hit the road for Arkansas, arriving in Fayetteville at 11:30 p.m. We are now holed up in a Quality Inn. Tomorrow, we will pick up a Christmas package from Julia’s parents at a nearby post office before visiting the Fayetteville National Cemetery and meeting with our friend Brianne.

Here is a typical view of downtown Tulsa. Click on the image below for a larger version.

Location: Tulsa, OK

Since we drove late last night and didn’t have anything to do today besides more driving, we slept in this morning.  When we woke up, we went directly to the Cadillac Ranch, a piece of “art” involving 10 Cadillacs planted nose-first into the ground.  There were a few people already there, so we decided to hang around until they left and nobody remained at the cars to get in the way.  Bad idea.  Every time one group of people was getting ready to leave, another would join.  It took two hours for me to get a handful of photos that didn’t have people running all over the place in them.  Nevertheless, it was a cool thing to see since we were in the area.

We had little desire to try to navigate Amarillo in an attempt to find a restaurant for breakfast that may or may not have been any good, so we stopped at a Cracker Barrel on the way out of town.

The first leg of our drive took us to Oklahoma City.  Julia had bought a travel version of Scrabble in Boulder, so we passed most of the trip by playing two games.  This may sound dangerous, but it was actually pretty easy since the pieces from the travel version snap into the board, making it very easy to pay attention to the road without worrying about things flying around the car.  Julia won the first game and I won the second, so we will have to hold a tiebreaker next time we get a chance to play.

We arrived in Oklahoma City at 10 p.m., just in time to see every single restaurant in the downtown area close for the night.  Discouraged and with few other options, we went to Taco Bell.  The food was fine, though we were approached by two homeless people while we ate in the parking lot, which was annoying.  I can’t imagine being homeless in a place like Oklahoma.  Then again, I can’t imagine being homeless in the first place … although some people may contend that we are homeless right now.

We continued on to Tulsa, which is where our driving will end for the night.  Julia is asleep in the car (she has a headache), so I am posting from a DoubleTree hotel in downtown Tulsa.  The security guard here has been creeping around relentlessly, which is making me uneasy, so we will probably sleep in a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot to avoid having to deal with this guy later on.

Here are photos from Cadillac Ranch.  Click “there’s more to this” to see them all, or visit my SmugMug.

Cadillac Ranch. Continue reading ‘Day 162: Cadillac Ranch’