Day 4 & 5: In Transit (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado)

By now everyone knows the severity of the storm cell that swept across the South East earlier this week. We were lucky enough to dodge the 300+ tornadoes that touched down in the past few days. Below is a tornado map from CNN and I highlighted our route to show how we were lucky enough to stay clear of destructive weather.

On Day 3 (April 27th, 6:00pm Central) we arrived at our campground safe and sound in Hot Springs Arkansas. Joe and I ventured outside the campground to pickup some burgers and beer for the night. The town of Hot Springs Arkansas, was not what I had expected. I hope I don't offend anyone, but lets just say I fit in very well with a scruffy beard, dirty cloths (hadn't showered in 3 days), and a flannel shirt. I think it's human nature to make initial assumptions / judgement based off appearance. I am familiar with the phrase, "Never judge a book by it's cover" but the very fact the phrase exists is because people DO judge books by their cover... this is true because I owned every Goosebumps book published because of the various pictures and colors displayed on the cover... (I never read any of them). Despite book covers, the people down south (including Hot Springs) were very kind and hospitable. In New York City people go out of their way to avoid any form of acknowledgement or eye contact, but in the South, people say Hi when you pass by. Imagine doing that in NYC? If I said Hi to a random person on the S train, they would awkwardly smile, stand up pretending like they forgot the next stop, (It only goes from Time Square to Grand Central and back) and move to the next cart. Maybe I am being too dramatic, but I think it would be a really cool idea for us NYC dwellers to start saying Hi to random people we see during our daily commute. Wouldn't that be a fun thing to do? Let me know how it goes because I probably won't be doing it. :)

Anyway, we woke up around 8am the next day and went to check out the Hot Springs National Park. To be honest, this was a bit of a bust. We saw a few of the springs, but the park/information office didn't open until 9am, and we wanted to get on the road asap. We decided to hike an uneventful trail and before we were half way finished, we turned around and decided to get back on the road. Hot Springs turned into just a pit stop along the journey, but there was an upside to the visit. Since we had to deviate from Interstate 40 West to get to Hot Springs, we needed to take some back roads through Ouachita National Forest to get back onto 40 West. The route we took allowed us to view great scenery and get a true sense of how some people live in this country. it is truly an amazing contrast from the apartments/houses we see in the NY/NJ area. Below are some pictures I took from the road as we passed through Ouachita forest. (from iPhone so forgive quality)

After driving through the forest, we jumped back onto I40 West and headed towards Amarillo, Texas. To get to Amarillo, we had to drive the entire length of Oklahoma. I don't know if anyone has ever driven through the sate of Oklahoma, but there isn't much to see. Trucks, cows, grass, and lack of elevation is the best way to describe the drive. Once OK was behind us, we made it into Texas (which wasn't much better) and arrived at our hotel in Amarillo. We decided to stay at a hotel so we could shower & sleep in a bed. Like I said earlier, we hadn't showered in a few days, and were essentially sleeping on rocks while camping in tents, so it was much needed.

From Texas, we drove to Cortez, Colorado. This drive was roughly 9 hours and we passed through New Mexico. Joe and I thought living conditions in Arkansas were rough, New Mexico was something we had never seen. We were able to take some back country roads and pass through very small NM towns (i.e. population: 200 - 600). Some places looked inhabitable, but you could see there were families living inside. Today was the first time it really hit me, that people are struggling through tough economic times. Below are a few iPhone pics:

I am currently writing this post in a Cabin located within the campsite in Cortez, Colorado. We initially pitched our tent at the campsite, but there are abnormal winds (40-50 mph) tonight which will dip the temperature into the mid teens. My sleeping bag is made for 50 degrees & Joe's is good for 20 degrees. In short, it would have been a very cold night & our tent looked like it was going to fall apart, so we decided to pay an extra 10 bucks a night each for sufficient shelter. Tomorrow we will be up early and head to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado (15 minutes from campground). Tomorrow's post should have some great pictures, so stay tuned.

As we approached Colorado from New Mexico

States driven through Along the Journey thus far:
NJ, PA, MD, WV, VA, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM, CO