Cotton fields and casinos.

It's about a seven hour drive from where I live to Tunica, MS. Why didn't we fly you ask? Well, because plane rental is expensive and commercial plane travel isn't much faster than driving. If your flying anywhere, no matter how short the hop, on an airline it takes about six hours.

Drive to the airport: 45 min
Shuttle to the terminal: 15 min
Early for security/check in: 2hrs
Flight: 45 min
Baggage claim: 15-45 min (if they haven't lost your bags)
Car rental: 15-45 min
Trip to destination: 15-45 minutes

So the money I would spend on "saving time" by flying is a complete waste (at least until I get my own plane).

We had a long car ride which is always fun for me. We talked and laughed our seven hour car ride away. I'm usually not in a big rush, so we were able to stop and smell the roses here and there. A big breakfast at I-HOP (mmmm stuffed french toast), a stop at a flea market (she likes to find interesting/cheap furniture to repair), snacks at the gas station were all stops along the way.

One of our stops was at a KFC to use the bathroom. On our way out we passed those little vending machines that sell bubble gum and trinkets.

She asks me "Why do they all call them super balls?"

I resist the urge to reply with dumb man humor and say "You've never had a super bouncy ball from a machine like this?"

"No."

I dig in my pocket and whip out a quarter and put it in the machine. She cranks the handle and a little blue and white ball with a "10" on it pops out. It looks like a pool ball. She immediately remarks how the cats might like the ball and gives it a bounce. Like every super bouncy ball in history, it boings twice as high the owner intends and goes off in an unforeseen direction. I immediately start to grin as this is exactly what I expected to happen from a woman who had been deprived of this simple childhood toy. There was a young couple in the restaurant and the laughter erupted as my wife, giggling the whole time, chased down the ball. We walked out together and the couple inside was still laughing. L couldn't resist the urge to try the ball again. This time she was prepared and did a couple small bounces on the way to the car. She kept catching the tiny sphere with both hands like she was trying to capture rain water to drink. It was precious. Two rough looking guys with in an old Pontiac looked on and smiled at my wife and her joy. It was a fun drive.

Tunica is probably much like Vegas was in the very early days of its existence. Its a fly speck on the atlas. There is nothing around for miles unless you count cotton fields. As a matter of fact, the fields butt right up to the casino parking lots in some cases. We drove through the country roads, winding our way to our destination. It was harvest time and cotton that escaped the machines blew across the roads and collected in patches like snow. L had never touched raw cotton and begged me to stop. We were close now and I could smell the dead money at the poker tables. I didn't want to stop but I did. She hopped out of the car and grabbed a small piece. I remembered raw cotton being a little more harsh or coarse than a cotton ball but this stuff was truly soft. She declared that it was going in our scrap book and we were off to collect our winnings. Soon the lights started to appear on the horizon. We made it.