from road tripping to road warring

so, for most of this trip i have just been doing short jumps between places i want to see or places where people i want to see are or just between larger cities where i might see something i want to see. regularly doing an average of 70 miles a day or so, basically trying not to be driving more than an hour or two a day. on average. that really isnt a road trip, that is something different.

a road trip, to me, is driving for a long time across a long distance to get from point a to point b. certainly making regular stops and a few detours to see things that are close to wherever you are. road trips spend their time on the expressways. well, since i left new orleans i have been road tripping. road warrioring. i left new orleans and drove to jackson mississippi - almost all on the expressway.

i spent the next day in jackson, at the library and then to the capitol building. i

the mississippi capitol building

walked around a little bit, it was nice out. it was like a fall day 71° and sunny. then i pushed on towards memphis, again on the expressway. i didnt make it there that night, i stopped in senatobia and slept in a parking lot. it was cold that night - very cold. it got down to the 20's and i wasnt parked in a position to accomodate that. i can park in different ways to block wind but here i was parked in an open lot and got a full blast of wind from any side it wanted to come from.

i also didnt have my covers arranged properly for this and my toes felt like they were going to freeze off. i would sleep for about twenty minutes and wake up to readjust and try to warm up my feet. it was probably the worst night of this trip so far.

i had it all worked out too. i was going to avoid cold weather almost altogether. aside from a freak snowstorm in new haven in october, i had managed to beat all the really cold weather. but now - after my trip had been revised a couple of times - i am driving right up into the cold weather. slap me and call me stupid. but, i am heading north to spend more time with my family and i think it is worth the next week of cold weather for this opportunity.

after waking up in senatobia i continued north of a state highway into tennessee. i ddint know it but i was headed straight for graceland. yes, that elvis graceland. i was taken a bit offguard because there wasnt even a sign that i had crossed into tennessee, it was early and i stopped. i am not a real big fan of elvis, but it is a place to go to and something to see. the wall that guards the houses is completely covered with graffitti, actually for blocks around everything that can be

graceland

covered seems to be covered with graffitti from visitors. they had elvis' planes and a number of museums. unfortunately this place was on lockdown and everything cost money, quite a bit of money, so i didnt do any tours.

after that i headed into memphis proper. i have been to tennessee before, i know it. but i think it was when i was a kid and therefore i dont remember any of it. or i was just passing through. either way, this was all new to me. i stopped at the sun records company (that promoted elvis and johnny cash, among others) i walked around in there and it was nice. they had the original 45's, mostly of johnny cash for sale and other memoribilia. i didnt buy anything.

after that i drove into downtown to see some other things. i walked around a bit, down by the river and through the music district. there wasnt much happening - it was still early - and i was sitting in my truck and decided to continue to be a road warrior. i got back on the road and headed towards nashville. i took expressway 40, music highway, pretty much the entire way. and it was nice. the day didnt warm up at all, and i mostly went parallel, so when i got to nashville at night it was back down in the 20's.

i went to a bookstore and sat there for a little bit, reading and warming up. what is hard about all these new cities is finding the little neighborhoods. i think about portland and how easy it is to find the little niches, or how easy it seems. i found one that i wanted to explore in the morning and proceeded to lose my way to it. when i found it i found a nice place to park that was shielded from wind and got in my truck.

i have a thin sleeping bag that i havent been using. i zipped this thing up and got into it, this was my plan for staying warm. i put an extra pair of socks on and started using my sweat pants again. in was 19° when i got in the truck. i got into the sleeping bag and piled my other three covers on top of me. this setup seemed to work pretty good. i still didnt sleep great, but when i woke up in the morning my toes still had some feeling in them. so that was good.

today i am going to explore nashville a little bit, go to the capitol building and maybe even stay another night. i am moving fast right now and will probably be back in nw indiana within the week, especially if i continue at the breakneck pace. i think that is okay.