Today we're in Hot Springs, AR. The getting did not go so easy yesterday. We left Brevard, NC at 8 in the morning only to have some serious ipod troubles so eventually we opted for listening to the Sun Also Rises on Tape. After we got into Tennessee (which was full of beautiful trees) we pit stopped at a quik-e-mart, which was the most southern hillbilly place we could have asked for. A whole rack of slim jims, and the general customer made us think we shouldn't wear our Stanford gear here. On the way out I bumped into a pot bellied man wearing jorts cut offs and a bandana on his head. Scuse me darlin, he said and let me out the door. Then we made it to Nashville through the heat and got an authentic college experience by going to Tyler's friend Will's house and watching Animal Planet. Sound mundane? It wasn't...they were showing The Monster Inside Me, a show about parasites that kill you from the inside. One woman had a parasite in her brain that real surgery showed to be extremely gruesome. The best part is it can never leave her brain. It is LURKING in there forever! (Lurk is the favorite word they use on the show). So then after Vanderbilt we realized we had 6 and a half hours to go after our already immense 5 hour trip that morning. So we headed through the rest of Tennessee, over the Mississippi river and into Arkansas which immediately depleted itself of people and became one open field under the sunset after another. We were going through Little Rock so we thought we'd check in and see what's going on. A baffling experience occurred. A beautiful city came before us, filled with dazzling neon lights and a gorgeous capital state building, but there was virtually no one on the streets. It was EMPTY. Freaked out, we left and finally made it to Hot Springs which in addition to being the home town of Bill Clinton looks like it has a lot to offer to us.
