All American Road Trip: Casa de Aluminum

Within the first 10 minutes of leaving Memphis, we crossed the Arkansas state line.

Neither of us really realized we would be driving through Arkansas, so it was quite a surprise. We stopped in a cute little town called Hardy, the antique capital of Arkansas. All of the stores were antiques shops with the exception of a candy/coffee/ice-cream shop and a bear hunting shop.

A few dozen miles later, we crossed yet another state line, into Missouri. We had no idea Missouri was such a beautiful state. We feel that if we talk about it the well kept secret will be out of the bag. But oh well, no one really reads this anyway (except Naomi and Zay).

Our first stop was the Ozarks, specifically Sunrise Beach, more specifically Casa de Aluminum. Tom, father of Timothy, invited us to stay. And boy are we glad we did!

The Ozarks is where 3 rivers meet to form a lake, with more shoreline than the the coast of California. Captain Ron, neighbor of Thomas, took us out for a night ride on the lake soon after our arrival. We admired the ridiculously large mansions that serve as vacation homes for people with helicopters and helipads.

We really enjoyed ourselves, especially in our unintentionally matching jackets. Turns out we have similar taste in overcoats. Yay twins!!

After the boat ride, we invited the rest of the neighborhood clan over for wine and cheese, and of course great conversation and laughs.

After a great night, we slept extremely well in a super comfy bed with Bob, dog of Tommy. The next morning we took the Poon Tang out for a ride, and jumped in the perfectly warm lake. It was a quick dip due to our fear of catfish biting our bums.

We unfortunately bid our farewells and hit the road, yet again. About 30 miles down, we saw a dog in the middle of the road, we decided to stop and see if he had a tag so we could bring him home. Sadly, he did not. We lured him into the car with goldfish crackers, and drove to a city hall to ask where a shelter was, they then sent us back down the road where we dropped off "Red" with some lovely volunteers. We had a hard time not taking us on the road with us.

Next we pulled up to Kansas City, and were blown away by its beauty! Trees and lights everywhere! We drove over the state line to Kansas to pick up some BBQ from Oklahoma Joes, a place recommended by many. It had a hour line out the door!!!

We took the insanely delicious BBQ back to Missouri to eat it at a park next to the most beautiful fountain we have probably ever seen (Jess has seen a lot of fountains). Verdict has moved Joes to first place for best BBQ in visited states. NO MORE BBQ PLEASE... But it had to be done!