Year 3 Day 8 – “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 5/10/2023. (Day 28 of 27-night KY to LA and back). As you can tell we eliminated a few nights at hotels and cut our trip shorter by three nights. We are on the road at 4am leaving Marshall, Texas and driving before the tractor trailer drivers are awake. They are still sleeping in their trucks which are lined up along US. Route 59 which is a north–south United States highway.
At 6am as we leave Texas and enter Arkansas it is starting to get light, and the tractor trailer drivers are awake and joining us in our travels. It is an overcast cool day.
I am ordering from Amazon already as we drive down the road. Even though I was up at 3am. I was able to shower, wash my hair, blow dry my hair, and put on makeup. On the train I felt that I had to hurry in the shower area and there was no blow dryer. The last few days I was looking pretty rough. Haha – no makeup and hair air dried. We stopped for egg McMuffins to eat on the road while driving. After the best healthy breakfasts for over three weeks, I couldn’t choke down the salty, greasy egg McMuffin. YUK. The tractor trailers overload the highway here in Arkansas. In the Los Angeles area, we saw none. We cannot figure out why. I tried to research it, but all I could find was that that the California Truck Ban says all trucks must be 2011 or newer and a law called AB 5 makes it very difficult for trucking companies to use Owner Operators. Additionally, in April 2023 California regulators voted to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and require all trucks to be zero-emissions by 2042. Driving Interstate 40 through Arkansas we see a lot of rice fields characterized by fields with curved mounds. Optimum planting dates in Arkansas for rice range from March 28th to May 20th. Curved levees follow the field contours, enabling growers to maintain water levels and keep roots submerged. Fields are irrigated using gravity flow, with the water entering the top of the field and moving down through each paddy via spills or levee gates. Most of the rice in Arkansas is grown in this controlled flood manner. When harvest finishes in the autumn, rice farmers close the drainage outlets in their fields to hold water on the land during the winter months. The water prevents erosion, controls weed and protects soil nutrients for the next year’s rice crop. Each year Arkansas farmers plant an average of 1.3 million acres of rice and harvest over 200 million bushels on 2,752 farms. Arkansas is number one in rice production in the United States while China is number one in the world.
At noon we are in Tennessee.
Today’s product recommendations are for keeping your skin looking its best at sea and in the sun. My favorite skin care products are made by Elemis. Although I do sometimes try a new product here and there. I actually find myself going back to Elemis. 1) I start my morning in the shower with a face wash. Currently I am using ELEMIS Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Wash https://amzn.to/3qZkwqC 2) After showering I am currently using ELEMIS Superfood Facial Oil https://amzn.to/3XvfUVu 3) Then the Elemis Pro-Collagen Maine Cream with spf30 gets applied. It is the best. It costs a little more than the drug store creams but wow it works. Whenever I decide I want to buy another less expensive brand I am sorry and head right back to this cream. https://amzn.to/46sJZsH 4) Steve also uses an Elemis product. He tends to break out when he uses sunscreen often. He finds the ELEMIS Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Pads excellent to use. It cleans that sunscreen out of his pores. When he uses these pads to cleanse his face he does not break out. https://amzn.to/3px1oQn
To see more about Amtrak Trains, click here: https://deestimes.com/train-travel/
To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count