Texarkana, Arkansas – Day 2 of the 2013 Hot Rod Power Tour

Early morning drivers meeting back at the University parking lot in Arlington before we headed off to Texarkana, Arkansas… The drive started off with about 30 miles of interstate, then onto traditional back roads of America. It seems a lot of the locals knew we were coming and were sitting out watching and waving as we passed. Some had even brought out their classic cars and parked them at the end of the driveways so that their cars could watch the passing cars, maybe dreaming that one day their owner would take them on the tour.

We passed through countless traditional small towns with a Main Street and businesses owned and run by local people. Rarely did we see any chain restaurants except for DQ and Sonic, which, with their retro/nostalgic feel somehow seemed right. Local classic car clubs had parked up on the route and this added further to the feeling of nostalgia. We eventually arrived at the Fairgrounds in Texarkana about 3 PM as we had stopped at one of the Dairy Queen restaurants for lunch, and so a lot of the Long Haul cars had already arrived along with the locals who were attending just this day of the tour.

Having spent a couple of hours at the show we then headed into town to find somewhere to eat and drink – having checked out www.bringfido.com which is a brilliant website for traveling dog owners as it lists hotels, restaurants, parks, and the like where your surrogate child is welcome – we found a great bar called the Icehouse which allowed Rupert our Chihuahua to sit out the front on the covered porch area where most of the locals were drinking. We got chatting to a few of them and the food was good, so a pleasant couple of hours and pints passed before we headed to our hotel for the night.

Our stupid GPS (okay, maybe it was the driver) managed to take us to the “wrong” La Quinta, so having unloaded the car, walked to reception, and queued for check-in, I was told the “right” La Quinta was the one on the other side of the interstate. Ten minutes later we checked into the correct hotel!

To complete the feeling of nostalgia the La Quinta we are staying at in Texarkana has internet, but sadly not in the room we are staying in, which is the furthest one from the reception. Hopefully tonight in Little Rock we will be back in the 21^st century not the 1950’s, at least as far as communications are concerned.

A full set of my pictures from Day 2 can be found on Facebook – here’s the highlights: