Day 2: No Respect for Historic Sites

Day 2 took us from Wichita to Rogers via Oklahoma.

You may be wondering why we took the "back roads" route instead of taking the much faster I-70 route direct from Denver.  This is why:

Yes, these two fat kids planned their trip around a hamburger joint. If you don't have Whataburger in your location, I feel sorry for you. We had them in Phoenix, but we don't have them in Denver, and while I got to partake when I was in Arizona earlier this year, Ben had no such opportunity. So naturally we had to go.

We arrived in Rogers mid-afternoon and immediately met up with John, who had booked a room at the same Microtel we did. None of us had stayed in one before, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice it was—and I have to say that of the three places we overnighted on this trip, the Microtel was the best. (Avoid the Days Inn in Lawrence Kansas!).

One of the things we'd wanted to see on our trip was the Pea Ridge Military Park; not necessarily because of any great interest in the Civil War, but rather simply to get our Park Service Book stamped!

I'll say this: it was beautiful. Arkansas is green. Erik told us it was very unusual for this time of year, but it was still amazing. In fact, that's the one thing I noticed the most after we got off the highway and out of the brown fields of Oklahoma. And the green here was different than the kind of green we have in Denver. Deciduous versus coniferous forests, maybe?

Anyhow, we made our way through the park and stopped along the way to grab some photos…

Even though John and I had never met in person prior to that day, I felt an immediate kinship. Some people have no respect for historic sites:

Absolutely no respect:

(Although I'm sure it's not the first time any of this had been done…)

And sometimes I happen to snap a few photos where everything just seems to come together:

Later, after heading back to the hotel to freshen up, the three of us joined  Erik and his husbear Robert at Frank's Hickory Inn for dinner. Afterward, we headed over to the infamous JJ's for some adult beveraging.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Okay, maybe just one. You pick.

This One Turned Everyone's Heads