Travelog- Day 3, Feb. 3
6:13am and we’re on the road. Temperature is 7 celsius. The grass is crispy underfoot. Gypsy does her duty; Leila is on strike despite the enormous consumption of water when we got to our room last night.
The Red Roof Inn was just like the previous ones. Brilliant statement
The Interstate veers to the west of Nashville. We see only a small clump of tall buildings flanked to the east by a lovely cathedral with two spires joined by an arch holding a bell. Satellite towers emit flashing lights at its base. Another church spire attached to a red-brick building is the only large edifice after that. As we leave the area, modest homes line the highway.
A bright orange rising sun peaks over our left shoulders causing the cat’s eye lane-markers to sparkle. Unlike yesterday it’s going to be a beautiful, cloudless day.
By now the laptop is up and running. A quick glance at the map between Nashville and Memphis leaves me wondering if I made too quick a decision re: coffee. I’m saved by a Flying J sign. Tractor trailer fumes fuel the fresh air; pump LOUDspeakers advertise the attributes of some brand name jacket. I use the facilities to learn that shower 740 is now ready. I glimpse the restaurant and wish for 2 eggs over easy on lightly butter toast – Instead I opt for 2 capuccinos to go - arrgh! artificial everything. Since I bought it, I don’t inquire what Al thinks about it.
Al has spoken several times so far and it’s only 8am. “Must be some sort of forest.” Funny I was thinking exactly the same thing . Then, “it’s nice to be going downhill for a change” is short lived as we face a long climb in the distance, but not enough for a ‘slow’ lane. Going down the other side we continue to be wafted with single and tandem transports. I can’t imagine trying to pull this trailer with the Ford Escape. We have aV8, but still climbing easily reduces the speed to 70kph, at times even less. I’m remembering Al’s ‘maybe we’ll have to sell this’ when he would see a nice-looking truck back home. Did I mention that Al is very attentive to my hobbies? He is very considerate in pointing out any signs of a ‘quilt’ nature.
I’m trying to become more adept using keyboard commands. The laptop’s fingertip mouse drives me crazy & has me moving the cursor everywhere but... Reminds of decades’ ago when using a mouse required a new skill – eye-hand-mouse coordination which is now second nature. The separate mouse connection is all too easily dislodged and the mouse often counter-productive, closing and opening features I hardly knew existed. Of course my fingertips seem to find still-unknown key combinations: windows, dialogue boxes magically appear or disappear seemingly without reason. The most annoying is ‘this feature is not installed, please insert …’ I should warn you that spell check is not installed (go figure!), a feature I’m not prone to use anyway. Spelling has always been instinctual for me, but that seems to be waning as I find myself typing and then re-typing, hoping for the right ‘look.Then there is the increasing propensity to reverse letters – usre for sure. Word won’t let me reverse the letters for ‘the’. Guess this is a more common error than I thought.
The radio is on. We both chuckle at the ‘news’ item – some fellow is swimming the Amazon River, all 3,000 miles of it. Aches and pains prevent more than 4 hours of sleep at a time. Supplies include: 5 sizes of wet suits (weight loss is expected) and five gallons of animal blood to ward off the pyranna.
Al pipes up – “You just missed the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch”. Kilometers down the road a river appears with a large marina on the far side. Boats are still in the water. The Tennessee River is impressive, but the map tells me that further north it is much wider.
The radio again – this time, listener comments about a previous broadcast on dieing (or is that dying. I know it’s not dyeing). Two of them remain with me. “It’s too bad that doctors have to see death as a failure rather than inevitable” makes me wonder if it’s terminal death or an accident that is referred to. “Nurses are responsible for a patient’s care during the last days. After all they are the ones who have spent the lion’s share of time with the patient.”
Shiloh Military National Park. “Famous Civil War battle”, Al tells me. Countries are full of place names that exist elsewhere. Shilo is a military base in western Canada. Yesterday we passed by Glasgow (same spelling this time)
Too many university names to remember, except one is a distant campus of the U of Tenn. Memphis is only 107 miles, half way there. The road continues monotonously, easier for Al though.
Back to the radio. Car Talk is the name of the show. Not my cup of ‘programme’, but somehow the ‘tune out’ barrier is broken. To use the parking brake or not when the car is parked. Seems both husband and wife are right. Depends on the circumstances. To set the record straight, unlike Al, I don’t unless on an incline; we’ve had to replace at least 2 of them over the years.
9:16am. Gonna be a long day as I want my muffin – now. BTW 2 days in a freeze/thaw cycle has rendered the last one amazingly tasty.
The I-40 with its parklike setting is about to by-pass Jackson, home of the Bear?? (apologies to any golf fans), designed by Jack Nicklaus; more important to this family, home of the Gibson guitar. The Adult Superstore is not shy about advertising. ‘Light bulb’ moment – are my ‘egg’ trees, perhaps cypresses? This thought after seeing a sign for a national park. Patches of vine-suffocated small bushes, trees, and wire fences along with ‘water holes’, perhaps man-made, line the Interstate.
90.1 FM Radio again. A New York cartoonist with a degree in philosophy who no longer draws but uses public domain clipart to satirize the war on terrorism, rejecting the “irony is dead since 911” think. Influenced by punk rock (Minute Man) & rap music, initially with a hate on for the 60’s hippy generation. “Get Your War On” is the book by David Reese, good writing, interesting point of view, but too much profanity for on-air readings according to the interviewer. I love this fellow – dry sense of humour, cheeky quips, easy voice.
Exit 20 is Canada Road. We have to ‘see’ it; nothing to do with a low fuel warning of course. It’s appropriate that the snow is GONE! OK I lie an ccasional patch in the shade of … Dogs are instinctually rationing their drinking. It is funny to watch both of them stop at identical times, lower their back ends, and … The old adage of ‘the family that pees together, stays together’ holds true. I didn’t mention that Gypsy was not quite so tight last night, allowing me, almost, my half of the double bed.
I’m enjoying the change in colour of the concrete sound barriers – kind of a Mexican palette, soft and warm. We pass by Danny Thomas Blvd. and then his namesake’s Research Institue, a biiiig building. Then suddenly the mighty Mississippi River is imminent. I am NOT disappointed. Years ago when returning from picking up Colin in Reno I saw a ‘mere shadow’ of this very long and famous river. And yup! it’s a muddy colour just as I had imagined. State line is smack dab in the middle, so we’re in Arkansas now. Roughly 2 hours to Little Rock; another 2 should see us in the Great state of Texas, just barely of course.
Switching seamlessly between metric (km) and English (mi) keeps the brain en pointe. I figure I’m slightly better at this than English to French. Practice, practice, practice. The same holds true for Al who has been put to the big test. Just after the big Mississippi bridge which is a piece of cake, we hit a bridge under construction, 2 lanes, the RH one being the former shoulder. Of course the lane width is reduced as well; add to that the patched/unpatched potholes, it was white knuckle time again. The day’s earlier stress test was a section of too many lanes to count where transports passed us on both sides giving new meaning to the stadium ‘wave’, only we move horizontally instead of vertically.
Phew! We just ‘survived’
89.3FM radio Grant & Sherwood … is the book. (www.adrp.org) The intro to the author interview is captivating giving little tidbits that demand your attention..
We’re seeing more, large crop fields, some of which are well into ‘green’. The first incredibly long, wheeled irrigation system. As if sensing my thoughts, the radio broadcast switches to a gardening phone in. Another ‘Ed Lawrence’ (head gardener for the Govenor General of Canada), just a different accent (lilock vs lilack) with equally good suggestions & tips (tomatoes like egg shells). Female trucker hauling refrigerated oil greets her male host “how y’er doing sugar”. He doesn’t miss a beat with “just fine, honey”. The show takes a sudden twist with Marsha and how to rid her neighbour’s suffering trees from the tormenting crows. She actually likes crows. Unlike our phone-in, these calls take on a more conversational tone. Very pleasant. I’m enjoying the southern drawl.
The sun continues to beat through the front window. I’m not complaining as I’ve been in shirt-sleeeves for a while. The concrete road puts any aged washboard to shame. I can hardly type as we follow along beside the White River’s swampy bog.
1:00 is a lunch stop. I trot behind the dogs along the picnic path in my shirt sleeves. They understand ‘tandem’. Leila finally performs; travelling upsets all our routines. Lunch provides more evidence of the why’s of overweight as I inspect the foot-long sub Al bought yesterday. It was really meant for him so I shouldn’t complain: white bread, barely encasing 2+” of sliced ham, a sad lettuce leaf peeking out from under 3 slices of processed cheese. I chop 1/4 off and return the rest to the fridge which, btw has successfully frozen my carrots and lettuce. Darn! No crunchies this noon for me or the dogs who also adore carrots. I take a photo of Al & dogs posed in front of the back end of the trailer to showcase our trailer’s ‘salted grime’ look. I make sure the license plate shows too. Neither camera is happy, proof that freezing temperatures and batteries are not good companions. Most of our belongings ‘live’ in the trailer with the exception of electronics which get to bed down with us inside, a rule imposed since my sister’s trailer was burglarized. Next stop I’ll try to squeeze a photo of the Explorer in it’s recently acquired new ‘face’. The windows are especially decorative; Al’s artwork, not mine.
We just passed Galloway Road. I’m left feeling that we should have checked it out; never know when you might run into a relative or two. Flocks of small birds pass over the roadway from time to time. Low fuel warning, we pull off and voila! - a town called Galloway, Arkansas. Now ain’t that the bees’ knees (and bees don’t have any knees).
Just short of changing to I-30 and just outside of Little Rock, an elaborate & very ornate (many white columns) Pentacostal Church sits facing the highway. A second almost as elaborate one a few miles later, again on a parallel road just steps from the Interstate and facing it. These are on a scale of some smaller RC or Anglican cathedrals I’ve seen in Canada, only newer looking.
Al is more talkative this afternoon with his barage of questions re: where are we, how far, when is the Texas border. My predictions are too often incorrect. Basically neither one of us can figure out, if we were only ¾ hr out starting this morning, how can S&T be saying we reach the Texas border at 2:35 when it is now 2:54 and we are easily 2 hours away from there.
An Airstream trailer goes by. It’s gorgeous, all shiny and clean. I had my eye on a used one but it was too heavy, missing the safety fudge requirement. I say “lookee. It’s not wavering” Al responds, “A pick-up is pulling it” thereby prompting a discussion about aerodynamics. Not all 18-wheelers push us over, but some pick-up’s do. I hadn’t noticed that subtlety. “A longer-wheel base is better.”. “What,” say I. “You never talked about this when we were researching what vehicle to buy.” He has the perfect show-stopper answer – “You said you didn’t want a truck.” “The Hensley hitch is designed to counter-balance the shorter wheel base”, I’m told. And on it goes for a few more minutes and I go back to my editing.
A pointing finger crosses my path of vision. I look up just in time to see 3 deer grazing mere feet off the roadway. The Interstate is again park-like, very soothing to the eye. Pine trees are quite prevalent now. The road is almost unbearably straight. Cars & trucks are nicely spaced out for miles ahead.
Good news. Texarkana is only 50 miles away and on the Texas border. I check the map to find that Wayco is south of Dallas and on our route. Yeah! I will have my picture taken outside the Curves headquarter building for the folks back in Kemptville. But that will have to be part of tomorrow’s adventure as I have just been instructed to look for another Red Roof. No luck there, but the ‘big’question is finally answered.
4:45pm A quick stop at another Flying J. I’m beginning to dislike this chain, but then I’m not a trucker. Filled our propane tanks, so that is good. A ‘disaster’ hits my eyes as we approach Texarkana and the Texas state line. All along the Interstate (both sides mind you) massive pine trees have been toppled over, their shallow roots pointing upwards. I try to convince myself that a tornado, or …but it is abundantly clear that this was a planned event. More highway must be on the planning books. Pity!
We’re now in the State of Texas, passing by the Lone Star Army Military Ammunition Plant which is adjacent to the Red River Army Depot, both of which appear to occupy a lot of territory. Our day is winding down. I look forward to my Flying J chicken salad dinner only if it is accompanied by a glass of wine. Dream on! I; we have only beer in the trailer.
Sign says Dallas is 160 miles. We pull off at New Boston into the Tex Motel. Several hundred small dark birds fly overhead. Continental breakfast, high-speed Internet, and a $10 deposit for the dogs. Works out to be about the same price as the Red Roof when you factor in the ‘freebies’.
posted by Pat @ 1:45 PM
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