Yokel hunting


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Published: April 20th 2006
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Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverMississippi River

We're on the Tennessee Bank - Arkansas across the river, Mississippi down the river.
So dragging ourselves out of bed to leave Denver, we planned and plotted our next move. The South beckoned. However sleeping in was much more important, naturally, so we left Denver at around 4 after a lunch of garlic bread..big hugs to our host Matt who kindly burned us some music - boo for dying ipods! We headed South through Colorado, arriving in the agricultural crossroads town of Lamar just as darkness fell. Goodbye hostels, hello motels! Calling it an early night, we settled into our motel room for movies, fast food and sleep.

Oklahoma!
Keeping to our '5 minutes after checkout time' rule, we got going the next morning to head further South, braving skunk and deer roadkill and the endless fields of Oklahoma... after mile upon mile of farm, we got a glimpse of OKC (Oklahoma City) and then we decided 8 hours was a long enough driving day, and hunted for a motel just south of town, in little Shawnee. Finding a motel was a bit tricky...we enquired at a few places, experiencing our first ever Southern accents at the gas station, and also our first ever Southern teeth (yup - seriously! Spliththth!) and found everything from
Ladies Who LunchLadies Who LunchLadies Who Lunch

Jenny sits in the shade just in front of our car. I thought the houses on the bank above us very interesting.
a place that smelled like someone's uncleaned kitchen, to a faux Tudor style place that was asking over $100 a night (a tad out of our range), finally settling on a Super 8 with a delightfully camp receptionist - and an all day breakfast bar with hot chocolate! I should not understate the importance of hot chocolate. It was a definite selling point (they even had little hazelnut and french vanilla creamers, teehee!) So anyway yet again Ju was able to enjoy the delights of TV - HBO tonight 😊 and Jenny settled in with a book to do some long overdue reading, and we had another very comfortable night's sleep. We departed promptly at 11.05, as is our wont, to head further South in search of Southern hospitality, real life yokels and barbequed catfish (seriously there are billboards all along the freeways for it...I feel like I've missed out on something!).

Yall come back now, y'hear!
Arkansas rolled out into wooded hills, with the treelined freeway separated east and west by a lush median - and here we began our bug collection.... our car is now a veritable entymologist's treasure trove... the countryside was verdant green and we
Ju and the MississippiJu and the MississippiJu and the Mississippi

Enjoying sandwiches by the river.
reluctantly pulled off the freeway to stop in Alma at our first ever Taco Bell for lunch. The food was a lot nicer than I thought it would be! And the staff there were really friendly...we enjoyed sitting alongside some locals who were discussing what the weather had been doing to their tomaters.

A quick stop in Little Rock, the Arkansas capital, led to the discovery of a pretty town - it is hard to imagine the events that have happened in this now peaceful, tree filled, river-spanning town. The freeway continued east alongside the Arkansas river, and we marvelled at the sheer number of bugs we were accruing, inwardly contemplating how they compared to the number of trucks we got stuck behind. We think bugs won, albeit marginally. Today Jenny woke with an ominously sore throat and took lots of multivitamins and ate fruit for breakfast in the hopes of scaring it away, but alas, 'twas not to be. By the time we arrived in West Memphis, Arkansas, she was feeling distinctly feverish, enough so that Juliet, certified truck passer, who had been unable to see her passenger for a couple of hours, was rather shocked. We promptly
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis, TennesseeMemphis, Tennessee

Halfway across the arched bridge in the middle of the Mississippi River, Arkansas ends and Tennesee (the volunteer state) begins. There is a glass pyramid to the west side of town in Memphis.
found a motel and did some overdue food shopping while Jenny shivered in the refrigerated aisles... once we settled into the room painkillers were taken, hot soup was organised (Juliet advocates the preparation of two bowls of soup with potato and vegetables, using only a microwave, a plastic knife, two bowls, two mugs and a bathroom bench and sink, to anyone who feels they have mastered the art of cookery) and we regretfully found that water in Arkansas doesn't taste that hot, and rejoiced in our cache of bottled water.

Moonshinin' and freeloadin'
Waking with Jenny feeling much the same, we went hunting for the nearest drugstore and found cold pills, tylenol and a big box of tissues. Suitably equipped, and with invalids feeling much better with some cold pills inside, we checked out and made our way to Memphis, Tennessee. Crossing the Mississippi river into the city, Jenny decided she was feeling well enough to be ably chauffered on a city tour by Ju, (did she have a choice?) but first it was high time we got to a computer for internet access.

The Memphis Public Library was one of the more impressive buildings we've seen on
Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams rest stop on The Music HighwayLoretta Lynn and Hank Williams rest stop on The Music HighwayLoretta Lynn and Hank Williams rest stop on The Music Highway

The Interstate between Memphis and Nashville has been designated the Music Highway, and all the rest stops are named. The i40 is so pretty!
our trip... designed like an art gallery, with superb modern sculpture, art in abundance and enormous interior spaces (not to mention the multicoloured forest in the children's section), we each sat down to an hour's internet and caught up on emails. Greatly appreciating the air conditioned sojourn in the library, we got back into our hot car and set off through beautiful colonial brick buildings and dappled sunlight, through tall avenues of trees wherever we went, in search, of course, of Elvis, without whom a visit to Memphis would be entirely meaningless. Driving through increasingly dodgy looking neighbourhoods, we came to the gates of Graceland, glimpsed the Lisa Marie airplane and one of Elvis' cars with tourists draped all over it, and decided that neither of us really needed to see more (apologies to Elvis fans) and that we'd really rather be eating marmite sandwiches (first jar about done for!) on the banks of the Mississippi. Blasphemy?!

Finding the river again was another matter, as it appeared tantalisingly close but blocked off by industrial buildings, yet after seeing considerably more of the city than we intended (however, definitely enjoying the drive...Memphis really is an amazingly picturesque city) we made
The geographical center of TennesseeThe geographical center of TennesseeThe geographical center of Tennessee

Exciting stuff! We jumped up and down a little to make sure the monument knew we'd been there.
it to the river, found a tree to sit under and settled down to lunch and to river and people watch. Revitalised and renewed we got on the freeway to Nashville, festooned with trees in blossom, and winding over rivers and creeks most of the way there. By now our bug collection was something to be marvelled at. Fortunately for us, we had a friend near Nashville in the hospitality industry, in the quirkily named Murfreesboro, so accommodation was considerably more salubrious than usual, for less than the usual cost (in case anyone's interested we've been spending US$18ish-25 per night on accommodation each, surprisingly keeping to budget)...big thanks to Kevin for organising us a room! Intending on a very early night for invalids and exhausted drivers alike, we settled into our comfortable room, sprawled out on our twin queen size beds and, oh divine decadence! Ordered pizza delivered to our hotel room.

Two very well fed girls later, Kevin stopped by to say hello and informed us that there was internet downstairs...naturally all our responsible plans for sleep went straight out the window and we stayed up till 4 in the morning desperately trying to catch up on some
Lest we forgetLest we forgetLest we forget

A Union civil war memorial, built just after the close of the war at Stones River Battlefield, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
much neglected emails, blog entries and picture updates, which Kevin enjoyed, as being on the 'hoot owl' shift, as they quaintly call nightshifts in the South, he doesn't often get such charming company at work. So anyway we went to bed very tired little muffins and somehow managed to not make it out of the hotel room till 5 the next day, what with reading in bed, writing postcards and cold pizza for lunch...mmm mmmm!

Deciding to do something constructive with our day, we tracked down a Wal-mart (another first for us in the US), and bought a few absolute necessities (specifically, make up and CDs). Please don't remind us that we have to fit this all back in our packs when we drop the car off at the end of our trip, we're trying hard not to think about it. Feeling much better about life in general with our newly aquired purchases, we picked up Kevin and headed for the geographical center of Tennessee....conveniently, 2 blocks away. Followed with a dusk walk through a nearby civil war battlefield... it's hard to be in the South without dwelling on the history... plantations that were full of slaves and whole battlefields of divided countrymen fighting bloody and vicious battles seem so far removed from the slow warm accents and friendly smiles of the Southerners we met. Sadly we missed out on any re-enactments this time but it would definitely be something to see.

As darkness fell we drove into Nashville and found a carpark in the city center, and went for a quick stroll around the main bar area to absorb some of the live music the city is famed for. Every second place we walked past had a live blues or country or jazz band, and even on a Wednesday night the city was full of pedestrian traffic and horse drawn carriages waiting to prey on unsuspecting tourists. We had time to stop and admire the city lights and bridges reflected in the river, deftly manouevered past some homeless bums and got back to Murfreesboro just in time to get Kevin to work for another late shift. Again our resolve to get an early night was just not strong enough, and Kevin had thoughtfully supplied us with a bottle of mead so as to complete our historical education. The honey wine was delicious heated up and I'm astounded
Broadway in NashvilleBroadway in NashvilleBroadway in Nashville

The bars all had fantastic live music, and with the balmy weather, the streets were full of revellers - even midweek on a school night!
to say we managed to stay up till 5 again writing back dated blog entries, we were certainly more than ready for bed when we hit the hay. And still more astounded we managed to check out by midday. By now Jenny's cold was much better depite all her best efforts to tire herself out, and sadly farewelling Tennessee, our trek took us North once again, through more bugs and 88 degree heat.


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And the Quality arrives!And the Quality arrives!
And the Quality arrives!

Kevin was our kind host at the Quality Inn, Murfreesboro. He got us a great deal on our room, helped us to free internet and got a breakfast together for us at 4 am when it became apparent we would not be rising before noon (yes indeed, the clock is correct and that is in the am, not pm!)
Leaving TennesseeLeaving Tennessee
Leaving Tennessee

About half an hour out of Nashville on our way to Kentucky. The Interstates are so pretty!


21st April 2006

Mead
Hehe Mead for the win! Had a great time with you two and hope to take a vacation to England or wherever and catch up with you again. Hope you are enjoying the remainders of the US!
26th April 2006

Hey girls
Hey! Jenny -e mail on the way and thank you for the postcard as I lost the piece of paper I wrote your blog address down on!! Was such a nice surprise to get it in the mail!! The blog has been such an interesting read!!! Should almost print it and bind it into a book..Have had quite a few chuckles reading. Keep on having a good time I am so jealous and can't wait to be doing some of that myself!!!

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