That would be good way to describe my brother’s place in Missouri. He is almost in Arkansas and if he goes anywhere in his boat he travels into Arkansas.
First I had to get to nowhere from the rural mountain area of North Carolina. So class, name a long narrow state that advertises a “Jerky Outlet” store with easy access to the interstate. (I didn’t have time to stop).
Here’s a useful geographical piece of info - Only three car bridges cross the Mississippi into Tennessee. Two of them are in Memphis. This limits your trip planning. I took the third one. It goes into that little hanging piece of Missouri. (BTW - if you have never crossed the Mississippi you’ll be surprised on the size of that river)
On my way to nowhere, I went through the nice sized town of Kennett MO. It’s about 100 miles from Memphis but I traveled in from the east not from the Memphis direction. Lots of cotton fields along the road. Someone famous comes from there. She recently released a CD titled “100 Miles from Memphis”.
My nowhere visit was in the Ozarks which spans southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. I know I’m getting close when the roadkills are mostly armadillos.
Another feature of the area is the hilly twisting roads. Motorcyclists love the place and I enjoy the roads if I’m not tired and it’s daylight. Here’s one of the hills. You really need to fly down it to enjoy it. I got to this hill by taking a shortcut down “Lightning Springs” road. Not hard to pretend being in the “Dukes of Hazzard” here.
Many residents of Ozark county are proud to tell you that there’s not one McDonalds in the whole county. You can buy a cup of coffee at the local store/post office/gas station/gossip center in Protem for 25 cents. My brother told me times are getting tough because it used to be free refills but now those are 25 cents too.
There are some strangely named towns in that area:
- Kissee Mills
- Yellville
- Flippin
The lake (Bull Shoals) is a major part of life down there. Forgot your boat? No problem you can ride across the lake for free on this ferry (take route 125 out of Protem).
Float your boat or your house.
Plenty of water in their basement.
My next post will be sharing the local police report from the paper. It's a fun read.
Going nowhere? Been nowhere?
Guess what, being in the middle of nowhere is very enjoyable.
