Now I understand that gas is cheaper in most parts of the country than it is in California. But the prices in Jonesboro, AR seemed surprisingly low. There was indeed some healthy competition among gas stations - good 'ol fashion gas wars - and it makes for cheap gas. The prices actually fluctated several times a day as stations tried to one up each other. Makes driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee bearable! When we got back home the cheapest place in Sacramento was $1.73.
The weather was pretty nice during our trip all in all. There was a fair amount of rain but some sun too. The thing we saw that we don't see much at all in CA was a real thunderstorm which even included a tornado watch! We were walking Jake and Jack as the storm approached. It was 77 degrees just before the front crossed over. Moments after this picture was taken it immediately started dumping rain.
The next morning the temperature was 34 degrees.
Finally the banks. It just isn't explainable. Jonesboro is a town of ~50 thousand and there are over 20 different banks in town with 130 branch locations between them all. Further, and this is the stranger thing, there are at least 10 bank buildings that can be described as monuments. I haven't seen anything like it unless you go to banking centers like Charlotte, New York or San Francisco. Here's a sampling...
Bank One
Bank Two
Bank Three
Bank Four
You get the picture...I could go on and on... Some sort of weird slowly growing ponzi scheme???
Finally, I leave you with a photo from my friend Carol who also went to AR over the holidays and snapped this picture (for her Blog) of the increasingly rare Stucky's gas station / store. Home of the famous Pecan Log. This is on I-55 a few miles before crossing into Tennessee....unfortuantely we didn't have time to stop but it made me yearn for the pecan log.
Happy New Year!
I love my Stuckey's. There is also a nice one in Hattiesburg, MS, strangely enough.
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