Pit Stops

I traveled last week to my sister's house - 400 miles from my door to hers.  I've made that trip about a hundred times I think and I know exactly where to stop, meaning where I think it's safe for a woman traveling alone to make bathroom stops, or food stops, or even a stop for a short nap in the car.  One of my favorite stops is a state park in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas.  There's a natural spring which forms a lake and the water goes over a dam, where they make electricity.  There's a path around the lake and since this park is about halfway for me I usually stop to walk the mile around.  If I don't stop to walk I'm really, really stiff by the time I get to my destination.

Of course there are about a million geese here so you have to walk carefully to avoid the goose droppings.  And there's another small problem here as well.  When you go into the visitor center to use the bathroom the attendant stops you to ask where you're traveling from and to and how many are in your party.  I've told them before that I am not comfortable saying I'm traveling alone with a half dozen people that I don't know standing around listening - I think that's dangerous.  They looked at me like I was insane.  They still ask - my protest had no impact.  I'm not a rude person but I try hard to totally ignore them.  They're quite persistent.

Another favorite stop is, of course, this one:

This particular McDonald's has a big parking lot for eighteen wheelers so I can park right there and there are people in and out all the time.  I've always hated their hand soap because it smells bad so if I could wait to go to the bathroom I would but this week they had a new soap that actually smelled good.  Yea!

But this trip this was my favorite pit stop:

This is Marshall's Dry Goods in Batesville, Arkansas.  It's a warehouse type place with row after row after row of fabric.  This isn't what I call quilt shop brand name fabric...it's the fabric you find at WalMart or Alco's or maybe even Hancock's or JoAnn's.  I don't know enough about those chain places and their fabric to know but I think I recognized some.  They had Christmas fabrics for $1.99  a yard, regular fabric $ 3.99 a yard, 108" wide quilt backing $5.99 a yard.  I bought a few pieces that I will use for scrappy quilts.  Mixed in with other fabrics they will be perfect.  And the people were so nice and very very friendly - it might be a regular pit stop from now on!