Another one bites the dust...

... a New Year's Resolution, that is. Resolution #4 for 2007 is "visit at least one new state." It is a carryover from last year so I was determined to do it as soon as possible. I landed in Missouri at 11:30 CDT and acquired state #31. Previously, I had MO as an airport state do to a layover in Kansas City on the way home from CA years ago, but now I can finally count it for real. Later that night I decided to drive to Arkansas to get state #32. I used a map tracking program online and and it said that Pocahontas, AR was only 168 miles from St. Louis. I figured i'd leave at 6:00, get there at 9:00, grab some dinner, get back on the road by 9:30 and be back to the hotel by 12:30 to rest up for the next day. The best laid plans... There was horrendous, nearly DC-level rush hour traffic, it was actually 212 miles both ways, there was torrential rain for about 6 hours of the journey and then there were the frogs. Apparently it hasn't rained much in southern MO or northern AR and as the rains started, out came the frogs - big frogs, little frogs, hopping frogs, dodging frogs, stunned frogs, defiant frogs and, inevitably, squashed frogs. At one point there were so many frogs on the road that it felt like a game of Reverse Frogger - instead of one frog braving all of the cars and trucks, it was one little car (black Toyota Corolla rental) bravely trying to dodge all the frogs. Anyhoo, plagues of Egypt aside, it was an adventure well worth it (complete with Ron on the phone trying to figure out exactly where in the Mark Twain National Forest i was located at that particular second with his GPS ("honey there are no city names for me to give you to look up - it's a forest")) despite not getting back to the hotel until 3am. I did a little dance by the side of the road and here is my proof for state #32. It is only March and that resolution is done and DONE!