The Rare and Elusive BBQ

The world was a better place this morning, thanks to a shower and clean laundry (at the Flying J truckstop in Joplin, MO.)!

These folks here (or should I say the trucker's wife) were taking advantage of the fine weather to conduct a little commerce in the parking lot

Quilts for sale

I talked to the wife for a little bit. She said the quilts are handmade and she makes them right there in the truck, while her husband drives. She said she used to crochet, but got bored with it. I told Mr. Trucker he should never again complain about how much room my green bag takes up (the large tote bag with outside pockets where I keep my yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks & books of knitting/crochet recipes). This lady has a quilting frame, quilt rack, and all the fabric, hoops, stuffing,  and other paraphernalia of quilting in their truck. Plus, they keep two little rat-sized dogs in there with them as well! Her husband must be a very patient man!

More truckstop commerce

Here's MY little project. It's coming along nicely now and may be finished by tomorrow.

The Beret

Mr. Trucker wanted to know why I'm making it in
camouflage colors, which had really never occurred to me

We crossed into Arkansas in the afternoon. It's refreshing seeing some new scenery for a change, after all that northeast/midwest stuff. Yesterday I showed you some Missouri bluffs. Today, I'll show you some of Arkansas'

Arkansas bluff

Bluff AND Fall color!

Upon crossing the state line into Arkansas, I immediately began looking for hillbillies. I saw a lot of these

Razorbacks!

And one or two of these

Hillbilly houses

But no ACTUAL hillbillies! Drat! Oh well, maybe tomorrow...

While I was on the hunt for hillbillies, Mr. Trucker was on a quest of a different kind. He was looking for a BBQ joint. He loves to eat some good ole down-home barbecue when he's in the south. His quest started right off the bat in a border-straddling town (I actually think we were still on the Missouri side) where he pulled into a BBQ joint only to discover a sign that said "No trucks", despite the fact that there were some semi trailers behind the place. After about 10 minutes of dicey maneuvering to turn around, and digging up their gravel parking lot a little bit, he decided to get out of there while he still had his eyebrows (rather than walking in and saying, "sorry about your parking lot, can I have one of your $5.00 sandwiches?").

Deciding to use every means at his disposal, he asked the GPS girl to find us a barbecue place. On the outskirts of Fayetteville, she sent us to THREE separate alleged barbecue joints that were no longer in business. The first one was in an industrial area where we had trouble (again) turning around, the second one just wasn't there, and the third one was now "Rosa's Salvadoran Cuisine". Finally on the fourth try, we thought we had hit the jackpot. Herman's was billed as having barbecue (at least according to GPS girl) and as we drove past it, it looked to be very popular. We parked about a block away, and here again, Mr. Trucker had difficulty maneuvering the truck without knocking over any telephone poles or buildings (I'm only saying he had DIFFICULTY, I'm not saying he actually knocked any down). We walked to Herman's and were seated and ordered water, but the menu did NOT contain what we were looking for, which was basically a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. What they DID have was highly overpriced ribs, and a $49.50 steak! Check it out:

http://hermansribhouse.com/includes/hermans-menu_new.pdf

Mr. Trucker handed the hostess $1 for our waters and said "Not what we were looking for, sorry", and we got outta there while we still had our eyebrows. On the way out of Fayetteville, on Archibald Yell road (actual street name, I'm not making it up), we passed "Penguin Ed's BBQ" and in a last ditch effort to score some dinner, Mr. Trucker pulled over and called them to ask if there was anyplace to park a truck, only to be told that they had closed two minutes before. We finally decided that two hours was more than enough time to have wasted and determined to press on to our stop for the night, barbecueless! As Mr. Trucker said, "We got hosed".

By the way, what's up with the chicken places in Arkansas? There are chicken restaurants on just about every corner, including a chain called "AQ Chicken House", which piqued our curiosity so much that I finally had to look it up on the laptop to find out what the "AQ" stood for. And now that WE know, I'm not going to tell you...just kidding. It stands for "Arkansas Quality".

Here's another sure sign that you're getting closer to Texas

The Boot!

Today's Silly Sounding Place Name: Sarcoxie, MO.