Fort Smith, Arkansas to Raton, New Mexico

On Monday after we left the Nowlin's home, we drove on into Arkansas, crossed the swollen Arkansas River to the far western part of the state, Fort Smith on the border of Oklahoma. Monday's drive was short (by this trip's standards), 5.5 hours of driving and 415 miles. We drove through the little small towns (pop. 363 etc...) along the top of the state as I-40 was closed due to flooding.


Tuesday we left Ft. Smith, crossed the Arkansas River again and went into Oklahoma. After awhile it started to flatten out considerably. We drove across Oklahoma and into the panhandle of Texas and then headed north. Tuesday was a looooonnnggggg day of driving. That was pretty much all we did. My navigator husband says we drove 10.5 hours and went 712 miles. I know you're all wondering how we passed the time. I'm getting pretty proficient at feeding people in the car; this process can take up to over an hour. Any of you who have been around my children know how much they eat and this is a hobby of theirs which they take very seriously. I have a couple of large rubbermaid bins with food that I pull out from under the seat and all the tools and fixings for lunches with what is in the cooler. We also work on many activities that we brought with us. First we all brought school work. In this vehicle I can stand up since I'm short and I can move from row to row to help with work. Then we have many activities the grandmothers gave us, bingo games for traveling; maps to color, dot-to-dots for all the states; flashcards; and other various activities. The week before we left I became a member of Enchanted Learning online. I printed all kinds of activities, charts, maps, and more dealing with geography and the states. Each child has a notebook with the bingo games, crosswords, word searches... in it and we add the maps and other printed activities as they complete them. By early evening we then enjoyed re-runs of the Andy Griffith show. We move around too; the children have been taking turns, changing seats daily and Scott and I share the front seat and switch around as well. So far, Daddy is doing all the driving.