Plucky Survivors See America 2006: The Original
The first Plucky adventure saw Mary and Rick traveling more than 2,300 miles across Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama including stops at the Britney Spears Museum, the Bill Clinton Library, the biggest ball of twine, and much, much more.
A note… there are lots of pictures on these pages but most were cropped down to fit 2006 style web design and unfortunately the originals were all lost.
How it All Started
Why? A very good question. Read all about how the idea for the Plucky Survivors Road Trips began.
The Big Book O'Fun
A lot of planning went into Plucky Survivors See American. Check out the updates from those crazy days before we hit the road.
Day 1: New Orleans to Natchitoches
Our first day on the road brought us Britney Spears, barbecue, burgers, and the disturbing realization that Rick didn’t spend enough time looking at the legend of the maps when he planned the route.
Day 2: Natchitoches to Hot Springs
We got the lowdown on the last minutes of Bonnie and Clyde, a tour of the current state of small-town America, more good road food, and a particularly brutal second match of Cow.
Day 3: Hot Springs to Branson
In which our Plucky Survivors break the Internet in an entire town, confront creationism head-on, go to great (somewhat illegal lengths) to visit to Dinosaur World, and celebrate a birthday in front of a giant ball of twine.
Day 4: Branson to Little Rock
We get up early, bright-eyed and bushy tailed armed with maps and a fine-honed sense of direction that lead us exactly to the place we’re going in record time. Either that or we drive around in a big circle for 90 minutes and wind up, more or less, where we started.
Day 5: Little Rock to Memphis
We meet the mother of all pies, have some (more) barbeque, pay a visit to Elvis, try to find our Soul, and end with a startling score in Day 5 of Cow.
Day 6: Memphis to Tupelo
We had two lunches within the space of 30 minutes; we had two desserts at more or less the same time; we tried to sell our souls to the devil for a donut; and we invented a new game called Cemetery.
Day 7: Tupelo to Birmingham
We’re getting close to the finish line but not before more donuts, more barbeque, another truly stunning hotel, a trip to outer space, an epic rainstorm and more wrong turns (but totally not our fault), and a visit to a quiet Alabama attraction that may very well end up being our favorite of the entire trip.
Day 8: Birmingham to Montgomery
On the penultimate day of the trip we experience an enormous exposed butt; learn how to play Cow with three people in the car (hint: it involves horses); get a visit from Homeland Security (seriously); and stop at two more magnificent museums about the Civil Rights struggle that move us to tears.
Day 9: Montgomery to New Orleans
The trip comes to an end back in New Orleans after a day of stalking Harper Lee, seeing the Friendship Oak, and driving… a lot.
Post Plucky Updates
Just because the Plucky Mobile was parked it didn’t mean our journey had ended. Read the post trip updates here.