Couple of Coffees

What state are we in? And what's the date?

Is it Texas or Arkansas?

In fact, we have no idea which state we're in, mental or physical. That's because we're staying in Texarkana tonight. The city spans both states. I'm sure we haven't hit the border yet, and Jonathan swears he saw a Welcome to Texas sign that I missed. Hmm. Tomorrow we'll know for sure.

We saw the Clinton presidential library today in Little Rock, and my husband was disappointed there wasn't a librarian. Or stacks of books he could browse through. He also was disappointed the blue dress wasn't on exhibit. We ate in a nearby cafe in downtown Little Rock.

Hot Springs was a cool town about an hour south of Little Rock, but we arrived as the shops were closed. There are lots of spas for mineral baths and massages, but again, it was around 5 p.m. I think Eureka Springs might have been more interesting, judging from the propaganda and especially because my parents have friends there, but we're far from there now. We decided to budget extra time for Texas, because it is, in fact, Texas. The size didn't seem so huge on the map, until I read about a barbecue place that's an hour-plus from Dallas, and it's a mere inch away on our map.

The days have been slipping by fast enough that we got ahead of ourselves and figured today was Aug. 1. We are happy to report we found another day when the hotel clerk wrote down the date. Now we have more time to get lost and/or get heat exhaustion in Texas. I'm hoping to find some childhood friends who live in Texas. Somewhere. Wish me luck on that.

Along with seeing Austin, which tops our list of reasons we're spending days in the Longhorn State, or whatever it's actual motto is, I'm very excited to go to the Alamo. It's something I always hoped to see because I'm directly related to Jim Bowie on my mom's mom's side, and directly related to a 16-year-old boy who also died there, on my mom's dad's side. I didn't find out about the 16-year-old until this summer, when the Texas leg of our trip came up in conversation.

Tonight we had a fabulous southern-style meal at Dixie Diner, a local Texarkana chain. And I'm happy to say, for the first time in days, our hotel WiFi is free, and better yet, it works. Hurray!

posted by Laura the Writer @ 10:19 PM