Day 6 (8/04/2020)

We set sail straight after Darwin’s morning swim. We have to drive with the back of the Jeep rolled up as we need to dry him. It is chilly and girls declare that their goose bumps have goose bumps! We tell them to enjoy it while it lasts as we are imminently close to entering Texas. We are hightailing it to our diamond dream through rural Arkansas with a quick stop to pick up a shovel and a toy for a pup.

Sasha’s attitude as we pull into the park: “I am certain we will not find any dirt! Just diamonds!!” I want to engrave it on our rig. 

At the site I stay behind in the retro with the dog. Sol takes the girls to dig for diamonds as I dig for diamonds inside my laptop at our dinette.

Pup is parked by my feet but is on a 26 foot leash, so, he promptly takes himself over to a neighboring RV. I then have to restrict his freedom with which he is not happy. 

They are back pretty soon as the gig is as a tourist trap as it sounded. They do dig out a local gift shop and come bearing gifts. Sasha’s got a ‘real’ diamond necklace and Tamara got boxes of pyrite and crystal. 

Since we are done early in the day we decide to keep moving with the stopping point tentatively in Wichita Falls, TX. 

We exit Arkansas and enter Oklahoma for a quick hour. The landscape around us gets flatter and flatter and the road kill gradually changes from raccoons to armadillos. We must be close to Texas. 

In Wichita Falls Sol feels like he can still be going and girls fall asleep in their seats. We decide that we can bite another chunk of Rt.40 tonight and I book a site in Palo Duro Canyon, TX 3 hours away.

It is an ambitious night as we don’t arrive at the site until late into the night. However, Texas treats us to a show as we are skirting a sizable storm. For drive’s duration we observe gigantic lightning bolts hitting the plains on either side of us. We have a front raw seat to a display of nature’s power. Girls wake up and are taking it in,

It is windy and we see tumble weeds hitting our car. in pitch dark I can barely discern how different landscape is from the lush greenery of Arkansas.