FIFTY STATES AWAYDay 33
After another restful night in Mississippi we headed off today towards Arkansas. There were a lot of fields on the way into the towns where it quickly turned very pretty, quite grand houses not the typical American build surrounded by red trees. It was cooler today and overcast, and we stayed in a city called Arkadelphia (no idea why but I find the name amusing).
Ben had an amusing experience after stopping at a dunkin donuts for tea & coffee, he ran in to get our bits and the staff inside were so excited to meet and English person that they all crowded round him and asked him lots of questions. Ben tells me that they seemed really intrigued in the differences in language, asking him if we also call the TV a Television, when Ben told them that we also refer to it as a telly they couldn’t contain themselves! It certainly cheered Ben up and they gave us a free donut!
We’ve noticed more animals around the roads here (alive and squished) than any other state so far and we’ve seen quite a lot of armadillo along with something neither of us can identify. Unfortunately we also ran over something, (we think it had already been hit) but this was significantly worse than the squirrel experience back in the UK!
Day 34
We woke to torrential rain this morning which threatened to put a damper on our plans. Not letting the weather stop us and hoping it would cheer up we headed of to the Crater of Diamonds State Park. At the crater of diamonds you can turn up rent some equipment, go and dig the mud and pan for Diamonds. Anything you find is yours to keep and they fully accredit your finds for you!
We had high hopes of finding something, however the weather was so severe, the rain did not stop pelting down in addition to the insane lightening. We had fully geared up with pack a macs, rubber boot covers and gloves and we’re the only people daft enough to be out in the storm. We slipped and slid around in the mud digging away, it took hours as we kept getting stuck in the mud and slipping around.
We finally got over to the pan station and noticed that it was actually time to leave! I took some little minerals with me and we headed out. We got to the car and all the employees left. We were so covered in mud we basically had to undress in the rain in the car park and jump in the car.
Drying off wrapping in blankets and changing clothes in the Crysler was difficult to say the least! Ben barely fits in the thing let alone has enough room to manoeuvre. We headed off back down the mountains towards civilisation, however the SatNav directions were a tad iffy leading us up logging paths and down a road that was a basically a river.
It was a rather a terrifying and long journey down, the rain had flooded almost every path and we both couldn’t help but wish we had a truck to get through some of the smaller floods. The Crysler is a heavy car and it’s low to the ground, which gave us little confidence when we had to do three point turns on the narrow flooded country roads.
We finally made it down to find that even the Interstates and main roads were suffering with the water. We headed South and came to a town called Hope, which made us both feel somewhat comforted! We stopped at a drive in fast food place called Sonic. It was a novel experience you pull up into one of the many bays order via intercom and then they bring your food out. You can sit and eat in your car, which was precisely what we both needed at that point as neither of us had any dry shoes except flip flops and sandals. We finally settled for the night in a town called Magnolia.