Clinton, AR

Well, I didn’t exactly make record time, but then again I rarely do these days. About 6 miles into this leg of the journey I realized I had left my trusty (if a little torn and beaten) road atlas at the Erie Kansas Shangri-La (LS’s house). Hating to backtrack, especially for a torn and beaten road atlas that wasn’t the road atlas I had in mind when I bought it so many miles ago, I stopped at a gas station and found the large scale, badass atlas I had wanted all along.

Things went smoothly from there until I hit the Ozark mountains of northern Arkansas. I knew the two-lane blacktops here would be a little slower going, but I forgot how nauseous I get after a few hours of the steep and twisties. In Eureka Springs I had to pull over and lay down in the back for an hour or so to let my head clear. Luckily, the road straightened out a few miles further on or I wouldn’t have gotten this far.

Now that I’ve logged a few miles with this vehicle I do have one very serious complaint. The cup holders suck. I have five of them within reach in three different sizes and as far as I can tell there isn’t a single cup in all of existence that fits any of them. I drove through a Taco Bell and a scant 7 seconds after pulling away with a bag o’ crap, my large soda took a header off the center console and exploded on the carpet. Cursing at the mess didn’t seem to help (despite my very energetic efforts) so I ended up using half a roll of paper towels trying to soak it up.

Maybe Ford makes a line of travel cups designed to fit snugly in those oddly sized depressions, but if they do, they hold a monopoly on that niche.