Crossing over the Mighty Mississip' !!!

Leaving Memphis, you’ll follow I-40 over the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

 Reflect on the muddy, choppy expanse of water that created a culture and history all its own. As the Rocky Mountains, which by their sheer size, divide the United States, the mighty Mississip’, for centuries, separated civilization from frontier.

The river itself was uncontrollable, swelling and moving unpredictably, flooding the fertile plains and delta, infusing the soil with the lifeblood it needed to grow the cotton crops that made Memphis what it is. She is a town that embodies a time and place, a culture that is so completely unique, so rich and sometimes as dark as the delta dirt. She is an unexpected oasis in the sweltering heat and humidity of the South; her image and sound will be long embedded in your memory.

With one final look back, all you’ll see is muddy water and treed sandbars. The Hernando de Soto Bridge deposits you onto the delta of Arkansas and flat stretches before you, unbroken.

Farmland grows along the edge of I-40 for miles and miles.

In winter, the coffee-colored dirt stretches to the distant tree-line, while summer brings a wealth of produce ranging from corn to cotton, soybeans to rice. Grain silos and broken barns lay fallow in the fields.

 Picture the generations who have worked this land—the colors of their skin, the lines of their weathered faces, the callouses on their hands. They faced seasons of drought and flood, pestilence and prosperity. They passed land down through the years, turning sharecropping cabins into plantations.

Exit 241B, Forrest City, AR, for a quick DONUT RUN. Just down from the Shell station, on the left, grab a few glazed donuts served up by a sweet Cambodian couple. Fresh coffee!

Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park (Exit 216). 

This national historic landmark preserves the initial point from which all surveys of the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase originated. In the year 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast territory of Louisiana from France for $15 million. This unmapped wilderness of approximately 900,000 square miles doubled the size of the fledgling nation and helped shape the destiny of the United States. Today, you can walk along the boardwalk and experience the captivating beauty and natural sounds of the surrounding swamp. Markers along the walk tell about the Louisiana Purchase and describe the local flora and fauna.   

www.arkansasstateparks.com/louisianapurchase

The swamplands of this eastern portion of Arkansas share the “Cajun” feel of much of present-day Louisiana. The French heritage is also prominent in road-sign names like DeValls Bluff, Bayou des Arc and La Petite Roche, or Little Rock. As you approach the capital of Arkansas, I-40 slowly rises out of the bayous and thick forests encroach upon the road.