Welcome to our 50th Anniversary road trip....

We had another really really good breakfast and began another day on the road.  Today we would not visit anything; it would be spent putting the 450 miles behind us on our way to Tupelo, MS and the next Motel.  We left Tahlequah on SR 62 and traveled 9 miles to Eldon, OK where we changed to SR 51.  We stayed on SR 51 for 23 miles till we intercepted AR, SR 59.  We traveled SR 59 south 33 miles to I-40.  We let the GPS guide us from Tahlequah to I-40….it took us through the most beautiful country side.  Rolling hills with trees very much like our Virginia home.  The roads so far were great till we got into Arkansas, where the road condition turned very bad.  Horrible to the point some of the damaged road repairs made the KIA get airborne and others made all the cars dodge and weave to avoid the deep holes and bad patches!  As soon as we started using I-40 it began to rain, Biblical rain to the point traffic was slowed to a walk.  This would last till we reached the outskirts of Memphis.  And it seemed that the tractor trailer trucks were racing when we got on I-40.  They would be 7 or more in a lane so close you couldn’t get between them and taking up both lanes.  You just had to stay behind the column; they wouldn’t allow anyone to pass!  We would drive east on I-40 for 280 miles till we came to Memphis, TN where we took SR 78 south for 105 miles to Tupelo, MS.  The last motel stay on our trip would be in a very nice Comfort Inn in Tupelo.  The bed was very welcoming after the wild ride on the roads.