mile 332 - 1294

Driving with my mom (and cat) from Richmond to Little Rock didn't seem like much of a deal for many reasons. One, I used to do the drive (well, from Fredericksburg) a couple times a year going to and from college. Two, I lived in Little Rock for 18 years so it's slightly more difficult to get excited about the place your from. Just slightly though. Three, mom drove 11 of the 15 hours that it took.

So we set sail on Friday morning. The sun wasn't up, there was a chill in the air, and literally hundreds of miles of road between us and our destination. It was funny to leave after just spending a week getting my apartment all perfect for living. But that will just be nice to get back home to in the end.

morning, noon, and night

We were in a suburban (thank you Aunt Marie for the use of your spacious vehicle), so it seemed silly to make Zissou stay in her tiny mesh cage. We let her roam, and after about an hour she got real comfortable. She helped mom drive and sleep and didn't even get antsy when I held her for too long.

(She is NOT a lap cat. Except when she is in a car apparently.)

Another thing about the drive from Virginia to Arkansas is that it's really long, but only because Tennessee should have been cut into thirds, at least. One of the best parts about driving across the country is all the Welcome To... signs you get to pass, and for the amount of hours spent in the car, there's just not much state signage payoff. While Tennessee is long and has a boring Welcome To sign, they do redeem themselves with these other classics: Bucksnort, a town in TN; the sign that gives you both the miles and kilometers to Knoxville; and the Entering Central Time Zone sign.

But Arkansas has a really good Welcome To because it's on a bridge that goes over the Mississippi River.

Trust me when I say that is the Welcome To Arkansas sign

As we entered the home state, I started to think about how I was treating this stop differently than the ones to follow. And I did not want to do that. I needed a touristy activity, or at least something I had never done and should. So we tossed the Little Rock classics back and forth. River Market, state capitol, Clinton Library, Old Mill. Done, done, done, done.

I have not, however, been to a Razorback football game or the epic tailgating that precedes (and goes on throughout) it. Shameful, I know. Lucky for me, the first home game of the season was on Saturday. PERFECT! And I even had a red tank top I could wear.

Mimi and I ready to be team players, I mean supporters.

Needless to say, it was so much more than I expected.

Tents as far as the eye could see ,

red people, smokers for meat, giant coolers, and it was all on the golf course!

It was a good time. Partially for the spectacle of it and partially because my dad fixed us up with one of my old soccer jugs filled with cosmopolitans. I think that was high class.

After I satisfied my urge to be a "tourist," the weekend went back to normal.

Small breakfast with the family turned into big breakfast with the family, hanging out with friends, meeting new babies, and running errands that wore me out.

Grandmothers! Friends!

Oh yeah, it also meant picking up my car! The car that I will introduce you to next time because she will be my partner in crime for the next 4 weeks.