Mama Has Arrived

Tuesday, September 14

At a REAL Trailer Park.  We're talking major trailer landscaping here. Roads, trailer numbers, mailboxes.

And this:

The ONLY art gallery in America devoted to RV life, which was all I needed to know when choosing a park for the night in Texarkana.

I kind of love this town.  Its post office is the only one that straddles not only two postcodes, but two states.  Its motto could be: Hey, We Can Go Either Way, or, Borderline Personalities Welcome Here, or Bi-Statial (okay, that's a stretch.)

But, back to the Art Gallery, because I know you're excited to see inside:

There was one kind of cool book I was tempted to buy:

That's her lipstick she's applying - if I tried that on our RV I'd end up looking like a graduate from the Bette Davis School of Lipstick Application.

But then I saw this two doors down - the real McCoy, not one 'a them thar modern retro jobs:

All this excitement at the end of a long day's drive through Arkansas.  We did stop in Little Rock for lunch at Doe's, a hole in the wall place on the river downtown.  Recommended in the Road Food guide, we actually pulled up at 11 am, thinking that we'd go tool around a bit and come back when it was open for lunch.  But it had just opened and since we'd been up since 5 and were hungry, in we went.  And a good thing too. By 11.10 the place was already filling up with a mixed crowd of mostly regulars, if the waitress's reactions were anything to go by.

11:10 am and we're all ready for lunch.  I liked the clever napkin idea.

They're famous for steaks, sold by the pound but they also serve hamburgers, tamales with chili, and maybe the best french fries I've ever tasted.  The tamales with chili (you kind of float the tamales in the bowl of chili - at least that's I hope you do) were quite delicious, and I was able to enjoy them for the rest of the 3 hour trip to Texarkana.

On the wall are photos of celebs, dominated by Bubba of course.  The waitress told us he'd been in last week when he was in town for a fundraiser (Obama '12 or Hilary '12?) but he didn't stop top eat, just sent some Secret Service guys back for some Tamales and Chili to go.  Sure, now that the wedding's over he can pack on those twenty pounds again.

Tomorrow we head for the Big Smoke with a stop first in Jefferson, Texas, where Dan's Grandmother Mamie was born.  I knew there was a reason I fell in love with him - he's got cowboy roots!