Traffic Jam

In 2006, Disney/Pixar released the wonderful movie Cars. Just before the movie was released, they also released diecast cars of the main characters (Lightning McQueen, Sally, Mater, etc.). I thought they were pretty cool and, figuring that Robby would want diecast cars in the future, picked him up the Lightning McQueen and Sally cars. Since then, the car collection has become somewhat of an obsession for me, and more suprisingly, Sarah. Our collection is now at 46, including 6 different Lightning McQueens, 6 Piston Cup racecars, 22 Radiator Springs cars (which only has 14 residents), 6 cars from previous Disney/Pixar movies and multiple others.

When the movie was first released, some of the cars became very hard to find. I could not bear not owning all of them and turned to eBay so I could pay outrageous prices for the ones I didn't have (I only purchased four on eBay, though.). Soon after these purchases, I found many of these at Walt Disney World. Doh! Since our return from Walt Disney World last summer, we have become frequent visitors of KBtoys in Great Lakes Crossing.

During one of our many searches for a new car, a worker in the store informed us that if we left a list of the cars we still needed, they could hold them for us. I smugly informed her that we now had all of the released cars. She then turned around, opened a drawer, and presented to Sarah and me a whole new series of cars that Disney/Pixar had released. Damn it! After leaving our wish list for them, we have been able to collect all but two of the released cars.

This evening I decided to explore, via the internet, if there had been any more announcements of cars to be released. To my surprise/pleasure/frustration, I have found out that Disney/Pixar has announced the release of 37 more cars (which include 8 Wal-Mart exclusives - we hate Wal-mart. Any takers on helping us there? Please? Lorrie? We love you!). Many more have been rumored. Can we continue at this pace?

I know this is a very silly obsession, but Sarah and I get a lot of joy from watching and playing "cars" with Robby. I have known only one other person to have a "toy obsession" like this, but there is a difference. The cars we have purchased have all been taken out of the package. They are jammed together in a soft-sided Cars lunch bag. They have regulary been run into walls, each other, and various body parts. Sarah cringes when the drivers do not appreciate the enormous effort put into collecting these toys. However, even though this money spent could be Robby's college education, we will not stop until all of these toys are ours! We can't stop! Does this stem from my years as a sports card collector, Sarah's blatant OCD, or some other genetic disorder?

Per Brad's suggestion:

42 cars at $4.00 apiece: $168

Sarge on eBay: $32

A second Sarge (still in the package) from Walt Disney World: $5

Watching your son line them up and then crash them into each other: Priceless

Camping in Arkansas. Really.

Arkansas is kind of pretty. Who knew? We camped at Petit Jean State Park, which is about an hour or two west of Little Rock. Our campsite had full hook-ups and was on the lake, with no other camper blocking our view. Pretty nice. We camped with Rob's parents, who were on the site next to ours. There was quite a bit of room in between the sites, which we used to play washers and ladder golf and let the kids run crazy.



While in Arkansas, we did a bit of hiking at the various sites at the park. On these hikes, we saw an abandoned bear cave (This was slightly confusing to Robby, who now thought it was a beer cave.) and an ancient Indian rock house with ancient pictures drawn on the ceilings. That was really neat. They were hard to see, but once we studied the sign and looked for the red markings, we were able to make out a couple of figures.



I have always been slightly (okay, really) biased of Arkansas and other southern states. The southern accent does not do much to increase an individual's perceived IQ. Plus, Rob and I have stopped at too many yucky gas stations with creepy bathrooms and toothless cashiers. Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with the overall prettiness of the park.