Kyle and I’s plan for today was to head up north an hour to have lunch with his parents, and then head back down south as close to Little Rock, Arkansas as we could so it was an easy drive in the morning.
The day started off super rainy, so much so that we could barely see two car lengths ahead of us on the highway which was a little bit sketchy. But we made it to Kyle’s parents house around 12:30, where I got to meet the - very friendly but sharp clawed - cats and dog, before we headed into town to get food.
The restaurant we were initially going to go to ended up being blocked off, since a semi-truck trailer had got stuck on the median on the only entrance into the parking lot for the complex that housed the restaurant, and the tow truck was busy trying to get it out. We ended up having to turn around and go somewhere else, which we decided would be Applebees. I’ve never been to Applebees, since the one in our town closed only a year or so after it opened.
The food was pretty good, Kyle and I both got burgers and shared a side of onion rings. His parents and I talked a lot about Canadian/American differences, and I told them about all the unique Canadian things. They’ve never been up to Canada, so it was fun seeing their reactions to how we do some things.
After lunch, we parted ways and Kyle and I headed to a local park to play some Pokemon GO. Since there was an event going on there were some other people already at the park who we were able to join. We played for about 30 minutes before heading down the road by one block to Kyle’s uncles house who was going to take a look at the cars headlights for us and see what it would take to replace them with better headlights.
We got to his uncles house and met his family as he showed us around all the custom e-bikes and scooters he’s worked on, along with his very custom van he’s been fixing up and improving. I showed them Canadian money, which is becoming a staple when I meet Americans, and they absolutely loved it. I let them keep my $10, which means I’m now out $15 total after giving my $5 to Hannah in New Mexico.
While looking at my car, he noticed the front passenger tire was basically flat, which was bad. We somehow hadn’t noticed earlier, but it’s good that he noticed now before we drove hundreds of miles on the interstate down south. He let me use his air pump to pump it up, which was one of the ones that you plug into the 12v socket to power.
We then were about to head to the store to pick up the new headlight bulbs, when we discovered the car didn’t to want to start. We quickly identified the issue as the battery, which was uhhh…. 8 years old. Not good. I suspect that with the battery already being well beyond its best years, using the air pump finally killed it. We jump started it and headed out to the store to get all our new parts.
Having Kyle’s uncle be a mechanic was turning out to be a godsend, since he knew exactly what we needed to do, along with getting a discount at the store, while being super friendly and happy to show us exactly what he was doing and explain it to us so we can do it in the future. He also didn’t want any money, and we called it even with the $10 CAD I gave him earlier.
We ended up doing the following:
- Replaced the battery
- Replaced the headlight bulbs
- Filled up the oil
- Filled up the antifreeze
- Added Lucas to the oil to help protect the engine from damage if we ever did run dry on oil (hopefully never)
- Filled up on blinker fluid (just kidding)
We said goodbye and many thank you’s, and headed to the nearest Walmart to grab some extra supplies. I’ve been meaning to get trimming scissors for a while so I can trim my beard which has been getting uncomfortably long.
We then headed out down south towards Little Rock, Arkansas, with a stop in Eureka Springs first, which was a recommendation from Kyle’s uncle. Eureka Springs was pretty nice, though it was raining and quite late, so we didn’t really get out and explore. It’s definitely a place I’d want to visit again in the day time if I was back in the area in the future. It’s built in a valley so there’s lots of buildings that while quite short themselves, are towering above you up into the hillside. It has a very “small town” vibe to it.
We kept driving and had to navigate through some pretty wild roads, whose signs indicated “very crooked and steep” roads. Wow, even the roads here are corrupt!
It was a little spooky driving through all the bare trees in the pitch black, with other cars being a very rare sight. It felt a bit like the site of any southern horror movie, where we’d come across some creepy person standing in the road and then never be heard from again.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and after a quick stop at a travel centre to use the bathroom, we made the final stretch to our rest stop in Knoxville, Arkansas and got ready for bed. I’m still sleeping in the back seat, just with a little less space now that Kyle is also sleeping in the reclined front passenger seat.
