The thing about "taking Route 66 across the country" is that you can't really do it, not anymore. When the massive I-40 Interstate was built in the '80s, it basically mirrored the Western part of Route 66 and essentially put the old road out of business, so nowadays if you want to see Route 66 you have to sort of pop on and pop off of the Interstate whenever you can. And ever since we hit Oklahoma City, where our route collided with Route 66, that's what we've been doing, because it is so worth the effort, if only to see how great America's car-traveling culture used to be.

It's also sad, though: in a lot of these towns you'll find one "famous Route 66 spot" that's still doing well, maybe two, but the majority of the other businesses just couldn't survive the Interstate bypass and subsequent drop in tourist traffic. They're still so beautiful, though, and so romantic: full of gorgeous neon signs and '50s-style motels and interesting architecture and people with stories to tell. So you take your time, you have a second cup of coffee, and you listen. And sometimes you get a little lost trying to make your way back to the Interstate and find an all-but-abandoned overpass that's become home to thousands of birds that come streaming out in a huge cloud when you drive by, and you stop and get out of your car and watch them fly.

One of my favorite stops so far: a roadside snack shop in Rich Mountain, Arkansas where we stopped for a quick ice cream, and ended up staying for well over an hour just because it was fun and the lady sitting in the dining room (who oh, did she mention? used to TRAIN WILD BEARS as a hobby) couldn't stop giving Goldie kisses and the cook put on a full-on magic show with something called a hokum (?) stick.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it's been, just meeting people. We've been staying in chain hotels and eating in chain restaurants only when we absolutely have to because it feels like such an opportunity, the chance to just be a part of the life of wherever it is that we're spending a few hours, and each and every time the decision to get away from the Hampton Inns and Waffle Houses (delicious though those grits might be) has turned out to be a good one. Not because we've necessarily been finding the "best" food or the "nicest" places to stay, but because doing this lets us see a small slice of what's going on, whatever that is.

But let's talk about grilled cheese for a second.

First of all, let me show you where we are right now: sitting at the breakfast bar in a hotel in an Arkansas town called "Lonoke" that may very well have been the setting for The Shining. (The hotel is actually very nice in the morning, but last night, when we were wandering the hallways looking for our room: totally kept an eye out for Redrum.)

We didn't mean to be here, exactly (although it's a very pretty part of the world) - what happened was that we stopped just outside of Memphis for dinner (more on that later because oh my godddd), with the plan to just wing it and find a place to sleep on the outskirts of town...and then our kids both fell asleep. Instantly. And what I have learned from this trip so far is that if the kids need to nap, let 'em nap; if everyone feels like getting out of the car and running around in a parking lot, go ahead and do that, even if it makes you arrive somewhere an hour later than you'd hoped. Just go with it. The destinations are less important than the journey, you know?

And so we decided to get a head-start on the next day's drive while the kids were sleeping and find a place to stay somewhere in between Memphis and Arkansas National Park, and then discovered that these "places to stay"? They're like an hour away from each other around here. And all of them, inexplicably, are completely booked up (presumably by people like us who were all "oh I'll just find somewhere to sleep tonight"...and then realized that there would be nowhere else to sleep for two hundred miles so they better get a room like now).