C3Q II Daily Dispatches From The Road- 10/8/26

3 States: 34) Missouri 35)  Arkansas, 37)Tennessee 

Woke up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and lo and behold, there was no sign of Sylvester Stallone and his Tulsa King crew anywhere. (LOL.) But all kidding aside, we arrived at the first posting site which was a huge outdoor mural commemorating the historic Route 66 highway in downtown Joplin, Missouri. As usual, I spraypasted the poster on an adjacent wall that served as the foreground along with the Challenger parked nearby. I took both video and photographs from different vantage points.

Before departing we had to reevaluate our route again due to new updates about the impending Hurricane Isaiah. We learned that the brunt of the storm is going to hit Florida, Louisiana and Alabama by 7 pm, Friday Oct 9. So the debate ensued whether we should go to Kentucky and Tennessee before heading south or wait to catch those states until the end to try to outrun the monster Hurricane Isaiah

Since we are aiming for the final destination to be Washington DC and the last state to be Maryland, we decided to reverse engineer the route from that endpoint. We will drive through Arkansas to Tennessee  then Batesville, Mississippi by tonight. 

Here is our new storm itinerary to get to the remaining 13 states in less than 4 days to beat our own record

that we "unofficially" set in 2016: 35) Arkansas, 36) Tennessee, 37) Mississippi, 38) Louisiana, 39) Alabama, 40) Florida,

41) Georgia,42) South Carolina, 43) North Carolina, 44) Kentucky, 45) Virginia, 46) West Virginia, 47) Delaware, 48) Maryland, Washington, D.C. — finish

Coincidentally, we will stop at Batesville, Mississippi, the same location we posted at ten years ago during our first cross continental trip where the attendant at the hotel warned us to stay out of the south because of a fast approaching hurricane. The plan is to swing through the south to try to get ahead of the ferocious storm called Hurricane Isaiah. It is predicted to be a category 2, with 100 miles plus an hour winds and 15 inches of rain. It is the first hurricane to hit the US in 2 years so there are mandatory evacuation in the Gulf states and it is expected to hit landfall in Pensacola, Florida tomorrow around 7 pm to midnight

According to our usual routine of departing around 10:30 am and finishing our first post by 11am, we would be reaching Pensacola, Florida at 7 pm right when the hurricane is supposed to hit. (To quote the fictional Floridian, Detective Debra Morgan from the Showtimes Series Dexter, “Jesus H. Christ on a raft!!!”)

But for now, we drove four hours across Arkansas and it was time to eat so we searched for authentic Mexican food and fortunately we have been very lucky with the restaurants we've chosen. Every meal has been both delicious and authentic which is rare because ten years ago it was hit or miss (mostly misses). This time around, we went to El Rinconcito (The Little Corner) and we ordered a Caldo de Res and a Caldo de Pozole which is a spicy pork stew with hominy accompanied with cabbage, cilantro, onions  and lime. While we waited for the order to arrive Zoraya went through the highways on the map book and I surveyed the area for any potential sites to post. When I came back in I shared that I had the perfect location and it was a site I had never done before. After we ate, we headed to a multi store double sided display marquee where I noticed that the last bottom right hand boxes were empty while the others were operating business in the plaza. It was so spacious that it required 3 posters on each side. (Breaking my record of multiple posters on one site of this trip which I hadn't thought of doing because we only had 92 remaining posters and I had already done multiples in previous locations.) It was a good idea to number the posters and know how many exactly I had left as the supply dwindled. That's how I knew I could spare five extra ones at this site for a total of six at this spot. 

Almost five hours later we crossed over the Mississippi River on the most brightly lit up bridge. We headed to the welcome center but both the parking and the building were closed. We parked outside of its perimeter and walked in through the fenced entrance. We strolled the perimeter and after a few minutes Zoraya spotted the perfect spot  with the beautiful multi-colored lights decorating the bride in the background. Now on to Mississippi where we retired for the night in the hotel.