Ash Flat Arkansas to Minersville Pennsylvania

It took just barely over 3 hours to drive from Nixa Missouri to Ash flat Arkansas Thursday morning. Our shipper was located really close to Highway 412. They got us loaded up within 30 minutes. This was the second time that we had been to their facility. We knew that the restroom with the "out of order" sign was perfectly fine to use. They had apparently had trouble with people making a mess, so they put up the sign in order to reduce the flow of human traffic. 

  We spent our first night back on the road at a travel plaza in Terre Haute Indiana. The cellular signal was a little disappointing, but we were still able to watch our favorite Netflix program, Prison Break. After it was time to get out of bed the following morning, I fueled up the truck. My positive impression of the truck stop quickly declined as I discovered one thing after another that didn't work properly. There were problems with the fuel pumps; The squeegee buckets were full of oily liquid that inhibited me from properly cleaning the windshield; and I was also a little irked by the failure of the smart phone app.

   After a partial day of driving, we parked the truck in Upper Sandusky Ohio. Stephanie's mom and grandmother came to pick us up. From there, we went to the prison in Marion to visit our dear friend, Kevin.

   It had been nine months since Stephanie and I had visited Kevin. There had been a certain degree of falling out between us over a situation that I will remain mum about. In spite of that, he and I had maintained a fairly regular correspondence. I've also been sending him a modest amount of commissary money every other week. 

  After a relatively short visit at the prison, we went to Stephanie's uncles house in Ralston. Two of his girls were putting on a piano recital. The 10-year-old and the 11-year-old performed extraordinarily well. The other five kids were happy to see us & gave lots of attention.

  We went to Findlay after that. Several of Stephanie's other family members live there. They always welcome me warmly. We delivered some Christmas gifts and received some as well. Family friend, Bruce, drove us back to the truck. We had a pleasant evening.

   This morning, we delivered our load of flooring tile to a home-improvement distribution in Minersville Pennsylvania. I'm sure it is usually a bustling place, but today, no other drivers were there! I truly enjoy driving around the holidays.