We both slept well again. The temperatures dropped into the low forties so it was a cool and comfortable night. I got up around 1:30 to see if the Milky Way's Galactic Core was visible but down the hill from us in a parking lot they had mercury vapor lights on and the entire sky was a red glow... so no dark skies here.
The pre-sunrise colors
I got up just before sunrise and the valley was filled with shifting fog in the morning light. Every minute or so the scene would completely change. When the sun burst over the mountains everything went golden, quite a change from the predawn pastels. I went back into the warmth of the bed and snuggled with Carol and Harper. We all got up shortly after and began the morning routine of bathroom, coffee and chores. After a great breakfast of fruit and cereal and after the Doodle was repacked and all ship shape, we rolled down the driveway to start out way westward. Since we left home in Rhode Island we had been traveling generally south and a bit west, but mostly south. We made our way back to Route 40, the main east west route across Tennessee and were heading due west across our first time zone change. We discovered that we like the look of Tennessee, with it's sandstone formations and muddy brown rivers.
We also noticed that the suicide rate among Armadillos seems very high. The dead line the side of the highway almost like mile markers. Carol looked up armadillos..we didn't know that Tennessee even had armadillos. Apparently they didn't have any until the mid 1980's and now they have adapted so well that it is open season, year round to hunt armadillos, and there is no limit. Maybe that is why there are so many armadillos committing suicide. I know that when a skunk feels it is in danger it backs into the source of danger to spray it’s well known scent. This does not work with cars.. dead skunk in the middle of the road. And 'possums, they are a stupid lot, here comes a car I'll play dead. That doesn't work either. Carol discovered that armadillos, when startled, jump straight up...well we can figure out how well that works too. Enough armadillo talk, I am sure we will see many more.
Entering Nashville
Our first real stop of the day was downtown Nashville and a walk along the river park. We sure had a lot of traffic the last couple of miles getting into Nashville. We found Nashville to be a pretty city and will have to come back when we have more time, but we are trying to get further west. Memphis is our destination and it is still three hours away.
Parked along the Cumberland River in Nashville
Further down the road, Carol spotted a sign for the Freshwater Pearl Museum, we had to go. There is a story here.
Back in 1999 Carol and I made a boat trip around the eastern half of the US..it took us one year. On September 26, 1999 we stopped at the Birdsong Marina so Carol could visit the Pearl Museum. We came back with a kitten we named Pearl the Boat Cat. And yes I was blogging at the time but I don't think the term blog was used, it was just a journal. It still lives and you can read the account HERE. Anyway we needed to revisit the Birdsong Marina and the Freshwater Pearl Museum. It was just 7 or 8 miles off the highway and off we went. It had all changed, yet it was all the same. The original building of the museum had burned, I think the lady said in 2001. But the marina pretty much looked the same. We walked around and the lady who runs the pearl museum had just locked the door to take her daughter somewhere, but we chatted a minute and I told her the story of Pearl the Boat Cat.
Birdsong Marina, some things never change
The memories this place brought back flooded the afternoon and we reminisced for quite a while as we headed the final couple of hours westward toward Memphis. Then Carol once again said 'It looks dark off to the west'. Here we go again. Carol got out her phone and booted the weather radar app. Sure enough we were heading right into another violent weather front. This one was almost as bad as the first one, it had higher wind gusts but no hail...and oh by the way we discovered that during the storm on Tuesday afternoon a piece of hail had punched a hole through our bathroom fan hatch. More repairs to do. The storm hit just as we began to get into the Memphis afternoon rush hour, perfect. It was another frog choking rain and this one had all sorts of debris swirling around. Exciting times to be driving around in a big gray box on eight lanes of mayhem. We pulled into the Graceland RV park just as the storm passed. As I checked in the lady said, 'You're lucky, we just got our power back on' - we are both hoping this is not a weather trend.
Life is good.
We got settled in and walked down the road a ways and found a neighborhood bar that does smoked meat. Carol had the pulled pork and I had a half rack of ribs.. we also each had a well deserved beer. I don't normally drink, and this beer will likely hold me over for quite sometime, but it just seemed appropriate with such good smokehouse food there in front of me. The sun is setting and I am sitting under a clear sky in a very crowded downtown RV park..not our favorite kind of camping. But when in Rome. . . .
