7-28-17

We left Hope, Arkansas around 8:00 after a stop at Walmart for some lunch meat for the next two days and hopefully the last bag of ice for the cooler. It was overcast and humid which could only mean we would have to see rain today. 

We drove three hours to Arkansas Post National Memorial. It's out in the middle of nowhere by today's standards but back in the 1600-1700's it was a happening place. Men from deSoto's expedition travelled here. It was a trading post maintained by French, Spanish, French and eventually American people after the Louisiana purchase. It was the site of a civil war battle (the Fort is now underwater) and today houses a herd of deer and an alligator, both of which we saw. Pretty neat to be in a place that is more interior America and holds history that doesn't follow strictly English story lines. 

We made sandwiches and began our long drive for today. It started raining near Helena, Arkansas just before we crossed the Mississippi River into Mississippi.   And when I say rain I mean torrential downpours where your wipers are going as fast as they can and it doesn't help you see at all. It rained like that for 90 minutes of driving. Of course the downpour also reflected my feelings of sadness that the adventure has to end, returning to driving kids back and forth to school and activities instead of on to the next adventure is weighing heavily on my mind. But I guess I have accepted it because in the long drive across Mississippi and through Alabama to Fort Payne, I laid out the busy end of summer schedule and start of school schedules and started to look forward to adventures I might have close to home. 

We arrived at our hotel around 8:00 and Luke went to the lobby to do homework while the rest of us watched a movie.