Not much distance covered today as we spent most of the day waiting in queues for various things.
Geoff needed to change money, so decided to go to the bank, none of the local banks in Alma change foreign currency it turns out, so a trip to Fort Smith was required. I'd also had one of my tick bites from Tennessee slowing grow into a big red rash on my back, it was pretty sore & a little bit of Google research meant I needed some antibiotics.
So our first brush with US officialdom ensued, we eventually found the First National Bank, it was a huge white building near the centre of town, a very chatty lady called Lorna changed our cash for us, she'd been on a recent trip to Scotland & was very enthusiastic in her praise of its beauty.
Once sorted cash wise, we headed out looking for a 'Walk in Clinic' on the other side of town, it's not really named that on the sign but it is called this by everyone. We eventually found this, part of the Mercy hospital group that is prevalent in this area. All of the people were ex military & all of the guys were well interested in the Xt's. Anyway after handing over a credit card, 20 mins waiting time & a quick 5 minute chat with the doctor, I was underway to the pharmacy. this is where the fun started.
None of the pharmacies in a ten mile radius had any Doxycycline, they could get it by Monday, which was no good. Because in the States, you can't just walk into any chemist with your prescription & get the drugs, the doctor sends an email or fax to the pharmacy, they then prep the drugs, you turn up, pay & collect... not so for us... so after several phone calls to various places we found a place that had the drugs & went to collect them. $50 plus tax for them... & we moan about £7.50 for a prescription at home!!!
So now we could leave, only big black thunderstorm clouds were threatening, we watched them for a while as we rode back towards Mountainburg & realised they were going the other way, so we headed up back into the hills again & had great fun blatting about on the trails leading through the woods until eventually we came out into Westville, a very rough looking place & a lorry that had dropped all of the back of its trailer into a ditch, blocking the road off, the local policeman was not a happy bunny!
We've ended up in a place called Siloam Springs, it's the only place with any accommodation here abouts, it also has a huge casino, so we checked into a Best Western, then went for a great buffet in the casino before calling it quits for the day, a mere 60 miles covered on the bikes but more like 10 as the crow flies!!
From here on in its lots of long straight bits heading north then west skirting along the boundry of the pan handle state, trying our hardest to avoid any of the big storms that are really prevalent in this state at this time of year.
By the way, we found another chicken yesterday, next door to our lodgings for the night... check it out!!
Hey hey, have fun all...
Geoff needed to change money, so decided to go to the bank, none of the local banks in Alma change foreign currency it turns out, so a trip to Fort Smith was required. I'd also had one of my tick bites from Tennessee slowing grow into a big red rash on my back, it was pretty sore & a little bit of Google research meant I needed some antibiotics.
So our first brush with US officialdom ensued, we eventually found the First National Bank, it was a huge white building near the centre of town, a very chatty lady called Lorna changed our cash for us, she'd been on a recent trip to Scotland & was very enthusiastic in her praise of its beauty.
Once sorted cash wise, we headed out looking for a 'Walk in Clinic' on the other side of town, it's not really named that on the sign but it is called this by everyone. We eventually found this, part of the Mercy hospital group that is prevalent in this area. All of the people were ex military & all of the guys were well interested in the Xt's. Anyway after handing over a credit card, 20 mins waiting time & a quick 5 minute chat with the doctor, I was underway to the pharmacy. this is where the fun started.
None of the pharmacies in a ten mile radius had any Doxycycline, they could get it by Monday, which was no good. Because in the States, you can't just walk into any chemist with your prescription & get the drugs, the doctor sends an email or fax to the pharmacy, they then prep the drugs, you turn up, pay & collect... not so for us... so after several phone calls to various places we found a place that had the drugs & went to collect them. $50 plus tax for them... & we moan about £7.50 for a prescription at home!!!
So now we could leave, only big black thunderstorm clouds were threatening, we watched them for a while as we rode back towards Mountainburg & realised they were going the other way, so we headed up back into the hills again & had great fun blatting about on the trails leading through the woods until eventually we came out into Westville, a very rough looking place & a lorry that had dropped all of the back of its trailer into a ditch, blocking the road off, the local policeman was not a happy bunny!
We've ended up in a place called Siloam Springs, it's the only place with any accommodation here abouts, it also has a huge casino, so we checked into a Best Western, then went for a great buffet in the casino before calling it quits for the day, a mere 60 miles covered on the bikes but more like 10 as the crow flies!!
From here on in its lots of long straight bits heading north then west skirting along the boundry of the pan handle state, trying our hardest to avoid any of the big storms that are really prevalent in this state at this time of year.
By the way, we found another chicken yesterday, next door to our lodgings for the night... check it out!!
Hey hey, have fun all...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.