Whathehellzapoppin'?! - The Blowout - Kentucky to Arkansas to Oklahoma

We left Kentucky on Sunday morning and headed south thru Tennessee to Arkansas.  We had to drive a little longer than we had originally expected because we mapped the route to a ranger's station in Atkins, AR rather than to the campground 15 miles outside of Clarksville, AR.  Even after that, it wasn't the easiest campground to find and we drove past it and had to turn around and ask some locals where it was at.  Dad of course had lots of Deliverance references to make after that.  It wasn't the most restful nights sleep while camping.  A pickup truck and another car drove through the campground a couple times late at night so Dad got about 2 hours of sleep and stayed in the Impala the majority of the time...he'll have to really sleep in a tent at some point on this trip.

Ozark National Forest - Horsehead Lake - Our first campground

View over Horsehead Lake

Old cemetery on the hill in the background.  We passed this on the way in to the campsite.

Lots of cows in the area.   These two were especially interested in us.  Spot the longhorns in the background.

On Monday, we left Horsehead Lake and headed for Oklahoma with a stop planned for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. After leaving a rest stop, I started driving because Dad hadn't slept well the night before and wanted to take a nap.  About 30 miles from Oklahoma City, he started dozing off.  I was doing about 65 miles per hour when suddenly there was a loud POW!  The car dropped down on the passenger side and Dad woke up.  I yelled "Oh shit!" and braced the steering wheel, hit the brakes, and pulled it off to the shoulder.  My hands were shaking and I'm pretty sure I had an early onset minor heart attack.  I thought the whole engine had exploded and fallen out of the car.  Turns out, we had just experienced our first ever blow out.  The front passenger tire was completely destroyed.  It blew a hole through the tire, the tread was shredded and peeling off, the steel belts had ripped.  After unloading more than half the trunk, we finally managed to get to the spare tire and the bumper jack (Dad is pretty sure that's the first time the original bumper jack has ever been used).  The fender got a little banged up by the tread that peeled off and it bent up the chrome a little.  We removed the spun aluminum, put on the spare and I made Dad drive from there.  We decided to head for the Cowboy Museum, hoping to find a tire shop in Oklahoma City.

My blow out on Route 40

 The Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum was really cool and WAY bigger than we expected.  It literally goes on forever.  It has statues, paintings, a rodeo section, a Western performers section, historic rooms, Native American rooms, a hunting room, a war room, and an entire room dedicated to barbed wire.  This room literally had thousands of types of barbed wire all in glass filing cabinets.  The absolute BEST part of the museum was the lunch we had there.  The museum and all its exhibits were great, but the food was amazing.  If you ever go to Oklahoma City, go to the museum and have lunch, whether you like cowboys or not.

End of the Trail statue 

John Wayne painting

After we left the museum, we went down the street to Hibdon Tires Plus Total Car Care, recommended to us by one of the guys at the museum.  They managed to squeeze us in right at the end of their work day and we got two new tires put on the front of the car!  We're really grateful that they were able to do so because we already had a hotel reservation in a town 100 miles down the road.  

One of the mechanics with the tire

This car is the reference in the title...it's Dad's new favorite saying.