Back on the road, again. Little Rock to Oklahoma. Half the way north through Arkansas, then half the way west through Oklahoma (the state, that is.)
For the first part, yOu could say that this is exactly what we are in this State. By a country folk called Pete.
We’ve been in Arkansas before, and here we are again. We know how to pronounce the place – Arkan-saw, unlike Kansas. Where is the sense in that? The singer was a big guy who fought for Uncle Sam in the Great War.
The sun shone out of a clear blue sky. We reckoned on stopping half way. We passed through Morrilton, and looked out to the North. Not much to see – just the occasional hill. But, in a land with a lot of low areas, any high point takes on its own importance. The guy who is buried here was handy with a gun and a knife. The writer wanted to make his daughter a Queen. We are in the Ozarks. Hillbilly country.
Yet again, we pass another Clarkesville. And no! Still not a clue about the song not written by the Monkees, and not performed by them. Maybe some other time …
Right on the Arkansas side of the river, lies Fort Smith. Famed by its mention in True Grit. It even has a statue of a famous lawman (No! Not John Wayne!). Maybe we took the wrong route through the town (along ‘Grand Avenue’, would you believe), but we are not planning to set up home in Fort Smith. More ‘grit’ than ‘true’! We decided to lunch elsewhere.
Only a few hundred miles from ‘sophisticated’ Asheville North Carolina, but a million cultural miles away, we passed the place where they fly Old Glory down at the Courthouse – and proud of it. By a worn-looking country singer. Due to the clear weather, we did not have the ‘biggest thrill of all’.
We must be just about the centre of the USA. Where people feel free to roam. Where the other side of the ‘No Trespassing’ sign is the one for you and me. The Original protest singer.
Oklahoma is filled with Indian reservations. You can’t really call them ‘Native Americans’ because this is where the Trail of Tears ended. When Andrew Jackson decreed that the land east of the Mississippi be cleared for White settlement, this is where the Cherokee and many of the Indian nations were forcibly re-settled. Many did not survive the journey.
People should be remembered. Forgive if you can, but never forget. A US $20 bill will never look the same.
We stopped in Shawnee for gas and food. Not far to go till Okla. that is what it says on the road signs. Okla City, OKC, but never Oklahoma City. It’s all in the name.
And talking about names. I am sure that the name means something in the local language, but in English, the Kickapoo Casino is, at best, unfortunate. With all the English names that we are not supposed to use (silver mist – german, zubes – arabic, nova – spanish) because they mean something unfortunate in another language, I think that we are entitled to smile.
The Sooner State. I knew that we would get there. Sooner or later …
… and here are the pics. Fort Smith didn’t have a lot to see, so I put in some Little Rock shots.
