Cable Car Chronicles: Nashville to Oklahoma City

Day 2 - 689 miles - December 28, 2011
Started at 10am and finished at 9:30pm
Conditions: Sunny and pleasant - 62ish degrees. Sun made it very warm in car.

I first have to apologize for the delay in posting. It was not my intention. But as to experience the most of every city, there just wasn't enough time in the hotels for much else than sleeping and showering.

Without further adieu...I give you Day 2 of our Cross Country Trip:

We left Nashville after feeling well rested after a fun day and night. I started the drive again and Michelle was navigator. I meant to give her credit in the first post. If not for her, I do not know where we would be. She mapped out all of our city stops pretty evenly spaced and located hotels in the safest areas. Our trip was smooth sailing because of her. She is a perfect road trip companion. And she brings the snacks. :) We were so close to Graceland that we had to make a stop in Memphis to see this American Landmark. If not for Graceland, there is really no other reason to stop in Memphis. Take my word for it. Yikes. Here are some photos we snapped from afar since there was no way we were standing in the endless line or paying for tour tickets.

In front of Elvis' mansion and grave. Nativity scene set up for holidays. You can see the stone wall behind us is covered in graffiti - The King's name in hearts is all over his majesties' walls.

Maybe my husband will buy me a plane and put my name on it one day;).

After leaving Graceland, we hopped back on I-40. We definitely had our fill of Memphis and the Heartbreak Hotel. Before we knew it we were going over the Mississippi River! And then right after that were signs to Arkansas...

Mississippi River Sign

The River

Welcome to Arkansas!

While driving through the flat landscape of this next state and continuing our license plate game, we came across a Black Beamer with PA plates. We waived hello and could see some movement behind the tinted windows. Next thing you know, the car pulls up next to us in the left lane with their window down and it is two guys looking around our age shouting "Where are you going?!" So now our window is down and Michelle is yelling "Oklahoma City!" Then they are writing messages to us on scrap paper and holding it up. Eventually they type a phone number and Michelle calls them to find out the deal. They tell us that they are from Scranton area and the driver just graduated from NC State. Cory - the guy in the passenger seat and the communicator, is moving to Palm Springs to be a Golf Pro at the La Quinta Golf Resort. It is hard to hear since both parties had the phone on speaker. They hang up and start texting. Eventually they ask us if we want to meet for lunch, but being the smart girls that we are, we say nah, thanks. And the story pretty much ends there, but it was neat to have made friends on the road.

We make a stop in Little Rock to grab lunch. A late lunch. It is almost 4 o'clock at this point. The city of Little Rock is very small, but very clean and pretty. It is on the River. We had lunch at a place called the Flying Saucer on Bill Clinton Blvd. Here are some pics from Little Rock.

Lunch Spot - First attempt was to go to a place Michelle saw online that Rachel Ray visited. But they were closed until 5pm, so we went here.

River Market - much smaller version of Reading Terminal Market

Random fact for this day: When we got to the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma we passed through Fort Smith. Michelle was driving so I looked it up to see if we would see the Welcome to OK sign before or after this city. I found out that this city has a population of 86,000 and is the Fort where the movie True Grit takes place.

Once we crossed into Oklahoma, lit up signs for Indian Reservation Casinos were all over the place. And the parking lots were always packed. Pretty far into the state we finally came to Oklahoma City - our next destination for the night. We found the first hotel we had in mind and checked into the Hampton Inn in Bricktown. A nice young guy at the Front Desk told us about the history of this city. It was re-built in the 90's, before that it was slums. Everything was brand new and they just got their new basketball team, the Thunder. The lobby was crowded with OK City Ambassadors in jackets watching the game vs. Memphis (Thunder ended up winning). We got changed and walked around the city. It was very quiet, but very pretty. Reminded me of a deserted Pleasantville or something. This was also the second night I went out in my Uggs.

Our hotel backed up to the Triple A baseball field. You could see the outfield from our window. They were using it in the off-season as a make-shift snow tubing hill.

We walked around the city. It was almost 11pm and most places were already closed. We ended up at a place called Whiskey Chicks, ordered a sandwich and beer each, then headed back to the hotel.

We wanted to see more of the town in the daylight, so before we started our next journey, we walked around the city to take in the scenery. A little more alive during the day, but still very quiet. We wanted to take a ride on the water taxi in the man-made canal, but they didn't start them until noon and we wanted to be on the road before then. So after a few pictures, into the car we went and on to the next.