We woke at around 5:45 and were pulling out of our Airbnb driveway at 7:30 a.m. It was still very dark, and we were instantly greeted by the lights and sounds of school start time and rush hour in Amarillo. It was bitter cold and extremely windy.
We were in Texas only for a short time this day, and it was the only place where we got a small glimpse of the sun. It never ended up coming out the entire day. At around 8:30, on route 40 outside of Amarillo, surrounded by huge wind mills, it briefly peaked around some clouds.
From Texas, it was through Oklahoma – the first either of us had ever been to the state. After driving through the entire state, I said that it was like a bridge between what I’ve come to know as the western landscape and the eastern landscape. Just after making it through Oklahoma City in the center of the state, the landscape went from being brown and red desert and plains to slowly turning into forest. And then we entered Arkansas where we were full on surrounded by forest, which reminded me so much of driving through Pennsylvania. We got our first rain of the trip in eastern Arkansas.
This was our longest drive day, and I think all four of us were feeling it by the end. We were staying at a hotel just south of Memphis – in Southaven, Mississippi. We wanted to grab dinner in Memphis on our way through and that ended up being way more of an adventure than we were ready for that late in the day. It was neat driving into Memphis in the dark, being greeted by all of the city lights. But between one way roads, road closures, and the restaurant that we ordered take out from being in the middle of a pedestrian only street – it took us a while to get our food.
We were so ready to be out of the car once we got to the hotel. Cold Mexican take out never tasted so good. Cheers to day three!
Our Open Ended Life 