Crossing The Border

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Westbound on  Interstate 40,

© Mrs. CarPeo

the last exit in Tennessee

gets you to the Memphis Pyramid

(Home of the NBA Grizzlies)

 

The next exit is in Arkansas

but first you cross 

the Mississippi River Bridge.

 

The 2529 mile road goes through

eight states but no interstate link is  

as scenic as Tennessee/Arkansas.

 

We were there on August 12, 2016

 

Tennessee has its pyramid and the bridge 

is photogenic enough to warrant this hyperlink

 

Then Arkansas greeted us with 

a Cracker Barrel Restaurant

in North Little Rock.

 

The cliche,

If you've seen one Cracker Barrel Restaurant,

You've seen them all,

is pretty much 99.9% true

 

Every porch is fraught with

oversized rocking chairs

 

Each restaurant is entered through the gift shop

with the identical "gifts" available

then each dining room has the identical number

of booths and tables in the exact same layout

 

The service is always most efficient and polite...

The menus have no variance in food or price

The food is always scrumptiously mediocre

and your coffee cup is always quick

to be refilled, if you so desire

 

Glasses of water arrive at your table

without your having to ask for water

 

We left there very satisfied customers

and I am grateful that Mrs. CarPeo

wanted nothing more from the gift shop

than some licorice candy

and a toothpick 

 

The one difference between this 

Arkansas Cracker Barrel

and ten others I visited in my lifetime 

was a very minor one:

virtually the entire staff 

was African-American

 

To regard this as anything but a minor difference

is to avoid understanding the United States of America

in the twenty-first century

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