July 20: We left Austin via car on July 20, shooting for Little Rock by bedtime. Texas has many beautiful, scenic regions, but the northeast corner of the state is not one of them. It's flat and crispy brown, thanks to a long, hot summer that started in April. We took the backroads around Dallas on the advice of a sexagenarian Dairy Queen cashier who recommended that we avoid "them spaghetti things" (a.k.a. freeway interchanges) in the city. No 'spaghetti things' in sight on the county roads, not even an Italian restaurant. The most interesting thing we saw was an exit sign for the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant. I was under the impression that Texas had joined the Union about 150 years ago, but maybe they are maintaining a militia just in case this whole "statehood" thing doesn't work out.

I had never been to Arkansas and wasn't sure what to expect. I've now driven right through the middle and still don't know anything about Arkansas. The freeway is lined with tall, thick trees, suggesting that the Arkansans are deliberately hiding something. I'm not sure if it's a land of stunning beauty or a sea of rusty cars on blocks in the yard, but whatever it is, they'd prefer that you just keep passing through.