Day Two: The Boredom

The previous night we had arrived late at the Fairfield Inn in Knoxville anxious to watch the second half of the Suns/Spurs game. Unfortunately, the TV in our room did not have TNT, so we watched the Suns blow their 3 and a half quarter lead on the internet. More sadness. So, we decided to sleep in just a bit on Thursday morning.

On day two we got back on the road around 10am. Somewhat worn out of listening to music, we decided to begin listening to a book on CD. Our choice was “Deception Point” by Dan Brown. The book was somewhat scattered in my opinion, but that was possibly because the random track setting was turned on. Even once we got the chapters back in order though, I was disappointed with this book. Maybe it was because I was comparing it to Brown’s best stuff, Da Vinci Code and Demons & Angels, which were page turners (even for me). Really though, I think I was turned off by the male reader's transvestite voice that he used to imitate the female characters. I guess it would have been worse if it were a female reader trying to imitate a male. Anyway, Tennessee was a scenic state, although it must have taken us 10 hours to get from one side to the other. Despite my ill feelings toward country music, Nashville was actually very beautiful city. Memphis, although bigger than Nashville, was also an enjoyable pass-through. I had never seen the Mississippi river before, so that was kind of cool.

Next on the docket was Arkansas… Umm, yeah.

Not having seen any form of human life in Little Rock or the Ozarks, we proceeded on to Oklahoma. The second we crossed over the state line, the highway turned into pot hole heaven (or hell). If you plan on making a cross country drive any time soon and care about the alignment of your car, I would recommend avoiding interstate 40 through Oklahoma. Most of the small towns that we passed through had found something for which to make them famous. For instance, we passed through the hometowns of Kerry Underwood (yuck) and Garth Brooks (double yuck). The signs announcing their origins were so big you’d think they had cured cancer or something. The town of Groom apparently draws people into its town by displaying “the biggest cross in the western hemisphere” right off the highway. Very nice. It actually looked like the biggest cross in the world in my opinion, but I don’t have the measurements of crosses displayed by roadsides in the eastern hemisphere to back me up. We also had been searching for the town with the second-largest ball of twine that the Griswald’s attempted to visit on their way to Wally World, but we must be taking a different route.

The bleakness of Arkansas and Oklahoma had really worn us out by evening. When I get really tired, I tend to get extremely goofy and weird (as many of you know). I began reading billboards and highway road signs using my loud, high-pitched, Monty Python-like voice that drives Breena absolutely crazy. “I don’t like spam!!”

For Breena, Oklahoma City couldn’t arrive fast enough. If only she knew a year ago what she knows now.

Day Two Summary
Start/Finish: Knoxville/Oklahoma City
Bumps in the road: 3,412
Total Distance: 900 miles
Hours of Driving: 13