Well, we made it to Little Rock. I joined the Eastern caravan in Memphis this afternoon; we had eight cars, including a black custom-done convertible and a car with custom paint that changes from red to orange depending on your viewing angle.

After establishing a meeting point with Russ, I waited for the caravan at a truck stop. I parked facing the off-ramp and they spotted me immediately. It was so nice to be part of a caravan again after driving for almost eight hours by myself! We went through a lot of construction in Arkansas and finally made it to the hotel around 6:40 this evening. I'd been on the road for more than 11 1/2 hours and was ready for a break.

We had dinner at a local restaurant near the hotel -- so near that we could walk there. One of the hotel front-desk people gave us a lot of coupons for free appetizers -- they had some good spinach artichoke dip!

I'm really glad to see everyone again this year and meet some new folks, too. I wonder who will arrive during the night... usually we leave an overnight stop with more cars than we arrived with. The one thing I'm sad about is that Lisa isn't here. I'm writing this on Lisa's iBook, which she sent with Dan (along with the rest of the Web cam stuff). The last two years I thought it was fun just to be on the Web cams occasionally, but learning about how they work is even more fun!

Phoebe, my Beetle, has been quite a trooper -- we drove more than 600 miles today and she never skipped a beat.

And Mom, if you're reading this, my back feels okay. (For those of you who don't know, I strained my back three and a half weeks ago. I'm recovering pretty well, but I really miss skating.)

Tomorrow we go on to Sweetwater, where we meet up with lots of Dallas and Houston people (I think).

Posted by stephanie @ 12:00 AM EST