Saturday, Jackie and I decided to go on a short road trip, yes, I said short, but it ended up being 4 hours long. Wrong turns, GPS inaccuracies and pure stubbornness made for an eventful afternoon.
We decided on a drive to Piney Creek which is about a 30 minute drive from home. Somehow, someway, we ended up in Hagarville. Once in Hagarville and in Johnson County, I suggested we drive to Oark. It had been years since I had been to Oark so I decided to rely on the vehicle's GPS. Totally the wrong thing to do when you are out in the country. We entered Ozone and was told to turn right onto a paved road. Even though this route was not familiar, I assumed the GPS was more accurate and maybe the way would be shorter and paved the entire way, wrong again. We drove 2 miles on pavement and about 8 miles on dirt. The entire time, Jackie was insisting we turn around, that we were lost. Well, I insisted the GPS would get us there. We then made a U-turn via the GPS and turned on a road which was almost not driveable due to huge ruts and rocks. Between the GPS recalculating and Jackie's right seat driving, it was a nightmare. We finally reached the end of the road and there was no Oark. The only thing at our destination was a horse trailer and an Australian Shepherd that didn't seem too pleased that we had arrived.
Feeling pretty frustrated, and reluctantly admitting that Jackie was right for once, we backtracked all the way to Hwy 21 to go the way that I knew we should have gone the first time. (I did call my sister Kathy once we had turned on the road just to confirm.) Jackie would not have been a happy camper had I chosen the wrong road again for a second time.
We finally arrived at Oark and briefly stopped at the old General Store. We asked a young lady about an alternate route to Russellville and were told the highway we were on would lead us back to Clarksville. Needless to say, we decided to take the highway home. (Reminds me of an old song from my teenage years.)
One lane bridges, hay fields, a mamma deer and her twins, old barns, a swinging bridge and the Oark General Store are just a few of the highlights of the day.
There's no place any more beautiful than the state of Arkansas. This is God's country and I can definitely say that I am proud to be an Arkansan.
The moral of this story is don't depend on a GPS, it might take you to a place straight out of Deliverance.