Getting Through Tennessee
Departed campground at HMP in early afternoon May 19th -- needed help from camp host (Gill) to get the pop-up onto the hitch ball -- took half an hour of finesing/raising and lowering before it finally dropped on. Finally, left around 3:00 pm and made it to Kingston, TN and stopped in motel (Super 8 with no laundromat) -- another tank of gas to get into eastern Tennessee. Countryside had lots of rocky hills and lots of streams -- highest number of roadside signs I had seen for liquor stores.
Hit the road again the next morning, earlier than the day before and made it to Jackson, TN on the other side of Nashville. Stayed at the Old Hickory Inn -- didn't want to venture far from I-40 with the flooding not too far off. Motel/Inn had a lounge (Boogie Nites) and happy hour started at 6:00 pm so, after doing a load of laundry, getting a shower and taking a short nap, drove to Arby's for a sandwich and looked for a barber shop (which I didn't find).
Had a decently fun evening at the lounge and danced some with Margaret (the young bartender) and Christy (the DJ). Retired rather early and shied away from a group of regulars at the bar. Smoking is still allowed in TN so, another shower was needed in the morning to get some of the mucous out of my head -- needed coffee too from MCD's and a breakfast for the road. The drive through western Tennessee was much like driving onto the plains from Colorado -- certainly not as dry and quite that flat but, reaching Memphis and driving over the Mississippi gave some relief to the worries about avoiding the floods hitting the south. I couldn't look intently at the river as I crossed the bridge but, as the miles went by on the western side of the river, I could still see many flooded fields and they only dissappeared as the road began to climb some toward Little Rock. The roads hardly gave me time to rest my thoughts of floods and tornadoes because they were some of the worst "washboard" roads I had to drive and that caused me to slow my pace as the winds also increased -- many truckers were moving slower too and I sensed they had the same feeling about the road conditions -- made me feel confident that I was making a wise decision to slow down.
Drove through to Lake Catherine State Park, a short distance southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas though I had hoped to make one stop on the way but, the rest stop was closed 40 miles east of Little Rock. Old man's bladder had to hold out longer than I had wished but, focusing on the bad roads took some of my thoughts off the desire to stop and find some woods to pee in. Lake Catherine State Park was some 12 miles off of the I-30W road to Texas and luckily a gas station popped up about a mile from the park.
Afterthought: Really, as I was travelling through the eastern part of Tennessee, I had thoughts or desires to venture out into the valleys and hills to discover more about Tennesse -- the rocky hills were intriguing and the lush vegetation made me wonder what could be found here -- maybe an apple-brandy still would be nice to set up here or find another locals brew being concocted. Later, in Jackson, TN found people to be quite friendly and outgoing -- maybe like Coloradoans.
Hit the road again the next morning, earlier than the day before and made it to Jackson, TN on the other side of Nashville. Stayed at the Old Hickory Inn -- didn't want to venture far from I-40 with the flooding not too far off. Motel/Inn had a lounge (Boogie Nites) and happy hour started at 6:00 pm so, after doing a load of laundry, getting a shower and taking a short nap, drove to Arby's for a sandwich and looked for a barber shop (which I didn't find).
Had a decently fun evening at the lounge and danced some with Margaret (the young bartender) and Christy (the DJ). Retired rather early and shied away from a group of regulars at the bar. Smoking is still allowed in TN so, another shower was needed in the morning to get some of the mucous out of my head -- needed coffee too from MCD's and a breakfast for the road. The drive through western Tennessee was much like driving onto the plains from Colorado -- certainly not as dry and quite that flat but, reaching Memphis and driving over the Mississippi gave some relief to the worries about avoiding the floods hitting the south. I couldn't look intently at the river as I crossed the bridge but, as the miles went by on the western side of the river, I could still see many flooded fields and they only dissappeared as the road began to climb some toward Little Rock. The roads hardly gave me time to rest my thoughts of floods and tornadoes because they were some of the worst "washboard" roads I had to drive and that caused me to slow my pace as the winds also increased -- many truckers were moving slower too and I sensed they had the same feeling about the road conditions -- made me feel confident that I was making a wise decision to slow down.
Drove through to Lake Catherine State Park, a short distance southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas though I had hoped to make one stop on the way but, the rest stop was closed 40 miles east of Little Rock. Old man's bladder had to hold out longer than I had wished but, focusing on the bad roads took some of my thoughts off the desire to stop and find some woods to pee in. Lake Catherine State Park was some 12 miles off of the I-30W road to Texas and luckily a gas station popped up about a mile from the park.
Afterthought: Really, as I was travelling through the eastern part of Tennessee, I had thoughts or desires to venture out into the valleys and hills to discover more about Tennesse -- the rocky hills were intriguing and the lush vegetation made me wonder what could be found here -- maybe an apple-brandy still would be nice to set up here or find another locals brew being concocted. Later, in Jackson, TN found people to be quite friendly and outgoing -- maybe like Coloradoans.
posted by Ray at
8:30 PM
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