Okay, so sorry for saying “stay tuned.” I should’ve known that I wouldn’t update this at all until the end of the trip. But I’ll do my best to make it worth your wait. If you were waiting at all. Which I’m going to go ahead and doubt. Anywho...
We left Galva around noon on Sunday. Our goal for the day was to get to Little Rock, where Steven wanted to check out one of his grad school choices. However, once we started passing signs and exits for Fayetteville, we discovered that the school he was interested in was actually there, and not in Little Rock. But I was driving, so of course, any sort of spontaneous exiting is out of the question so we continued on. Turns out, Little Rock is a long way from Fayetteville. It’s also a long way from Oxford. And it’s not a very nice town. We found a super cheap and moderately sketchy Motel 6 for the evening, and Steven in a sudden spurt of manly fear for his lady, gave me a knife for my keys and told me how to escape if I ever found myself in a horror movie type situation. All of these things, of course, made me feel ever so much better about our 35 dollar hotel room. We got out of Little Rock without any sightseeing.
Along the way to Little Rock we stopped in Tulsa for some much anticipated Jamba Juice. It was just as delicious as I remembered, but I’m glad there’s no Jamba Juice in Oxford. It’s just so expensive, and I know that if I lived in a place where it was I would either go broke or eat it so much that I got sick of it- both of which would be very sad. So we took our smoothies and headed on, through the massive state of Arkansas. Also on Sunday we found out that Steven’s Dad had another emergency at the hospital and wouldn’t be able to meet up with us for any part of the trip. Super sucky, and I think Steven was pretty unhappy, so I let him pick where he wanted to eat. Apparently that was the wrong thing to let him choose, because suddenly Long John Silvers sounded good to him and we both regretted that decision immediately after. Turns out, Steven’s stomach doesn’t really like the combination of interstate food and 600 mile a day driving. After listening to him vomit everything we’d eaten in the past two days, while sitting in the Motel 6 watching the Weather Channel at 2 in the morning... well... I knew we had reached the low point of our trip. Just like with Betsy and I last year- we had to listen to the bum puking in Austin before we could really start to have a good time.
On Monday we learned that Arkansas is truly the biggest state in the entire universe, and drove for days to get to Memphis, which we did not enjoy. We got to Beale Street just after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, and the whole place just looked dirty and deserted. Then we scoured the town for a Wal-Mart, where we had to pick up the money that Steven’s Dad sent him so that we had money to get home. Once we got through the line, there was some sort of Code 4 with the moneygram, and we had to wait another 45 minutes to get it all straightened out. Turns out there had been some problems with moneygrams in the past with a different Steven Miller. Yet another reason why children with common last names should have freakish first names like pudding or jelly bean.
When we finally crossed the Mississippi state line, everything started to feel better. The roads were less crowded, the scenery was varied and beautiful. Oklahoma and Arkansas were full of crazy semis and dead trees. As far as the eye could see. We got to Oxford and immediately got lost, but were rewarded by finding the “SnoBiz”, Oxford’s own sno-cone and smoothie shack. We refueled and then promptly got lost again, trying to find the Bed & Breakfast. Then we got stuck in some guy’s driveway and finally called the B&B to get real directions. I have no idea how my directions were so bad, but they were the exact opposite of everywhere we were supposed to be.
The B&B, called “The Colonel’s Quarters” was massive and Southern and beautiful. After the day of driving and the Little Rock adventure- it was like a dream. We had the whole place to ourselves and ordered sushi for dinner and took pictures of the insane four poster canopy bed and flat screen TV and double vanity jacuzzi tub bathroom. It was so sad to leave. They didn’t have a full breakfast, but we had all the muffins, sausage biscuits and cereal we could eat, along with cranberry, apple and orange juice. It was a good thing that we only had the reservation there for two days, because if we were there the whole week, we might never have seen the town. Also, the first night, the mother who showed us our room, had some major fight with her home from college son in the yard about responsibility. It was a good bit of Southern domestic drama to help us get situated in our new environment.
As for Oxford, it's wonderful. There are giant old houses everywhere, and hills and little winding streets and antique stores. The historic downtown Oxford square is beautiful and old and full of fun places to eat, little boutiques and wonderful bookstores. Other than food and gas, we’ve only spent money on books, because the selection is insane. I bought three books from the used bookstore for 15 dollars, and three books from the full price store for 45. Also, in the bookstore the guys working talked to us about Denis Johnson, Joy Williams, Padgett Powell and Susan Minot. It was unreal. We tried to go to a reading/concert at the used bookstore tonight, but it was already full to capacity when we got there 15 minutes early. I think that’s a good sign.
Today we went to Rowan Oak, to see Faulkner’s home and take pictures. They still have the whole thing intact, including his study, where he wrote outlines of his notes on the walls. We also went to the library on Ole Miss campus, where they have Faulkner’s Nobel prize, and a copy of his acceptance speech and first editions of all his novels. The literary history of the town is just insane. There was another room dedicated to a Mississippi publisher who discovered everyone from Pablo Neruda, to Barry Hannah, Tom Franklin and Susan Minot. I would love love love to work in that library.
And now, we've reached the end of our journey. Tomorrow we drive back to GC for Easter weekend and I'm kind of dreading facing Arkansas again. But the Days Inn is starting to get depressing and the people next door are smoking weed and filling our room with the smell, so I think it's time to say goodbye. Tonight we ate dinner at the Volta Taverna and it was fantastic. It was Greek food that actually tasted good. I had a falafel wrap and Steven got a chicken gyro and we had spicy hummus dip and these warm cinnamon pita chips. So good. It will be so sad to go back to interstate food tomorrow too. Also, when we driving around trying to find the Wal-Mart last night, we discovered a Dippin Dots store! Hailey would've been on cloud nine.
It's been a great trip, ending with a K-State win in the first round of the tournament! What a great day. Happy first day of spring, everyone!
I got to mash up the garbanzo beans and then mix all the vegetables together. So much onion. So much garlic. 
Happy little Steven, spending a wasted hour chopping garlic. If only we had known!
I was also in charge of making bread crumbs. Somehow, when you're forced to do this for a meal, it's much more complicated. It was also complicated by my frustration and hunger and the fact that I didn't have any sandwich bread, old bread, a hammer, or any plastic baggies. After toasting and baking and mashing this new sourdough bread to no avail, we finally found an old box of croutons and beat them with a pair of pliers until we had bread crumbs aplenty.
The after dinner entertainment. Dan in Real Life is excellent- by the way. So sweet and funny and Steve Carrell-y. 
And the after after dinner entertainment. Steven won. Again. Then he tried to teach me Monopoly strategy and I went bankrupt after two times around the board. How does that happen? 
Back to dinner. Still going. We made the actual falafel balls wayyyy too big. They fell apart immediately. Also, they stay together and are much healthier if you bake them instead of frying them. But that takes longer, and we were finally resorting to shortcuts.
The fixings! Our pita bread was too small. I would recommend the actual pita pockets. 
And finally on the plate, ready for eating. It doesn't look incredibly appetizing here, but that's just because of the orange plate and pink fork. They were really yummy, even with the excessive amount of onion and garlic. I promise.
