This girl in her bedroom doing her homework, she’s foolin’ with the logarithms, she’s going berserk

And now for the news …

Actually there is very little news today, so this will be a relatively short post.

We stayed the last three nights at Rachel’s AirBnB in Memphis TN. The house is about 120 years old and comes with all of the expected creaks and groans.

I’m not yet quite half of that age, and I know that I have plenty of creaks and groans. Especially after tripping into a hole in Nashville and falling off a Segway in Franklin 🙁

We woke this morning to a bracing -2°C. Here is the evidence in case you don’t believe me.

The Don II was doing a Frosty the Snowman impersonation.

Today was a bit of a driving day. We left Memphis early-ish and crossed the bridge over the mighty Mississippi River into Arkansas under glorious blue Tennessee, then Arkansas skies.

After a few terse instructions from Jolene, she finally said something like “stay on I-40 for the next 168km …”, and then she went quiet for a couple of hours.

So we did just that – sat on the I-40, which I understand is the main interstate across the USA going east/west.

I’m concerned that I am becoming accustomed to driving at speed on the interstate. The I-40 is a major trucking route across the country and there was just truck after truck after truck – in both directions.

We were surrounded by trucks at one point and we were simply crawling along the I-40. I was getting frustrated at our snail’s pace … then I looked down at the speedometer and found that I was doing around 75mph … about 120km/hour.

Anyhow, nothing happened for a couple of hours. Absolutely nothing. The road from Memphis TN to Little Rock Arkansas is about as boring as baked beans on toast.

Seriously.

MBW found a “Country Christmas” playlist on Spotify and we sang along to Christmas songs like cowboys for a couple of hours to pass the time.

It was either that or fall asleep at the wheel, which is never a great idea at 80mph.

We arrived in Little Rock AR about 11.30am and decided to stop for an early lunch, or a late breakfast – depending on how you look at it.

Little Rock AR is not the most exciting place in the world either it turns out, so it was a bit of a “take a photo as we drive past on the I-40” affair.

Bill Clinton hailed from Arkansas, so it was not unexpected to see roads named after him. In fact, I think that the airport is also named after him.

We found a Walmart, bought a few supplies for lunch (a sandwich and a couple of donuts) before we continued on our way to Hot Springs AR.

That road was a little more enjoyable, and it had a lot less trucks. It also had quite a different feel to it. Nice big curves, and rolling hills – much more fun at 80mph that staring off into the distance at a straight road.

And a good reason to stay awake!

Hot Springs AR is a pretty little place, with old bathhouses lining the Main Street – Bathhouse Row.

It would have been nice to stop and have a soak in the mineral springs at one of the bathhouses, but we really didn’t have the time, or the required swimming gear.

Going nude was never an option because … well, because it wasn’t. And the fact that the temperature was still only about 5°C would have made the nude bits particularly cold and unpleasant. For everyone.

We also needed to still get to tonight’s AirBnB which was at Hot Springs Village AR – another 30 minute drive yet.

So we spent an enjoyable hour or so exploring Hot Springs AR, walking along the street and looking in the shops.

Do you ever have a sense that you just blend in? I had a sense as we drove through Hot Springs AR that we were just blending in – almost like we were invisible.

And then I found out why …

Hot Springs AR has a big mobster and gangster history, so as we cruised the streets in The Don II, we just blended in 🙂

Ironic really. What do gangsters, mobsters, and Bill Clinton have in common? Food for thought.

So that’s about it for tonight.

Tonight for dinner we went to a little place in Hot Springs Village called Beehive – really quirky place, but delicious comfort food. It was recommended by our host Shannon.

Today’s trip looked like this: 225mi or 360km.

Now, you may be wondering about the title of today’s post.

I mentioned earlier that we had been listening to a Christmas Country playlist today. Well the truth is that we have turned on the car radio a couple of times, but we have mostly listened to Spotify.

Country, Christmas music, 1980’s, 1990’s, Elvis, The Zac Brown Band has had quite a bit of airplay … in fact we have listened to pretty much everything except yodelling music.

And we WILL NOT be listening to yodelling music.

Why be at the mercy of the radio station when you can listen to whatever you want?

Therefore, today’s song: Who listens to the radio (The Sports). Those bands in the 70’s really knew how to make quality music videos 🙂

Click the link, turn it up, sing along, and enjoy!

Tomorrow is our last day of driving, then Friday morning we fly to NYC for six nights. It’s been a great road trip and I hope you have enjoyed tagging along so far.

PS: I lied. Turns out it wasn’t a short post after all. Bummer.

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019