Trip South: From Belleville, Kansas, to Mena, Arkansas

Yesterday, I packed our things in preparation of going with Larry to Wichita, Kansas, and Idabel, Oklahoma, to pick up snips & snails & puppydog tails (i.e., toys for boys) for him and for Maria’s father, Dwight, who owns an auto-body repair/rebuilding shop.

Actually, what we were going to get had something to do with vehicles and vehicle parts:  a 1991 Suburban Larry purchased on an auction, a van door for Dwight, and a loader bucket setup for one of Larry’s tractors.

We had planned to go last weekend, but Kansas got an inch of ice, and Oklahoma got at least seven inches of rain, and there was a lot of flooding.  In Kansas, trees were down, entire rows of power poles fell, and there were many accidents.  All told, there were 14 deaths from that storm.  The weather would be much better this weekend.

Larry got home at 6:30 p.m.  We tossed down our supper (think ‘Garfield-style’), threw our bags into his pickup, and were off.  Well, that is, after Larry cleaned his pickup inside and out, we were off.  

At 11:00 p.m., we went through Geneva.  That’s Nebraska, not Switzerland.  Shortly after midnight, we were too tired to go any farther, so we stopped in Belleville, Kansas.  We learned on this trip that it really is a whole lot cheaper to rent motel rooms for two than for three.  This one was only $50!

One drawback:  they didn’t have free breakfast.  We got breakfast sandwiches from Subway this morning.  

The rest area was full of trucks carrying turbine blades.

These teeth are put on the edges of the blades to make whistling noises to scare the birds away, as the turbine itself makes practically no noise, and birds often fly into the blades.

This is the 1991 Suburban Larry got on an auction.  The tires are new... and Larry says that at the price he paid for the vehicle, it's as if he bought a set of tires, and got the Suburban body free along with it.  He wanted something to drive while he does some repair on his pickup.

We weren't far from the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, and planes went over incessantly.

Evidently nobody told the dandelion it is December.

Dandelion gone to seed.

We ate in the Southern Belle Family Diner, a restored passenger railcar, in Heavener, Oklahoma.  The atmosphere was delightful, but, even better, the food was totally scrumptious.

It was beautifully restored inside.

The waitress let us look at an album showing the restoration process -- there's the ceiling before repairs began.

There are train photos the entire length of the car.

That 'bowl' is the size of a dinner plate!  The waitress gave me a lidded styrofoam dish for what I couldn't eat of this 'Southern Belle crispy chicken chef salad', and there is more than enough for tomorrow's lunch.

Larry's supper -- crisp breaded catfish and Southern Belle chicken, with all the fixin's.

Our room in Mena, Arkansas.  We hadn't intended to land in Arkansas, but missed the turn where Rte. 59 turns onto Rte. 259.

Still, it was a nice room, and only $56.