I thought since I am awake maybe I would put a little blogination about the epic journey so far. The journey began with a drive across highway 20 through Bama and Mississippi. This is my synopsis of the journey:
- From Dunwoody to Carrollton everything looked like Atlanta.
-From Carrollton to Memphis everything looked exactly the same. Not like Atlanta, but exactly the same. There were various low-grade hardwoods lining the side of the roads (sweetgums and maples, mostly, a few blackgums, sumacs, and sourwoods as well) and some sort of half-alive fescue strewn with weeds. After passing through Birmingham, which was not such a bad looking city, we really didn't pass through much else. Tupelo is in Mississippi. Tupelo is also a southern word for the genus that blackgum is in (Nyssa). For example, you might hear people talking about Swamp Tupelo, and that's a kind of tree. Funny how trees are everywhere! Anyway, Tupelo has something to do with Elvis, I think, because there were many Elvis signs and stuff around there. But the town was kind of non-existent. Past Tupelo is Memphis. I am not sure why many singers like to walk in Memphis with their blue suede shoes, but I wouldn't walk in Memphis; it's kind of scrubby. I mean, I think there are probably more abandoned buildings in Memphis than there were lived in ones. It was kind of sad, actually, seeing all those abandoned places...
But the real epic place was Arkansas. It was dark while we were in Arkansas so we didn't see much of it, except for crossing the Mississippi, and that seemed pretty cool. Port of Memphis seems like a veritable trade center and the port on the Arkansas side didn't at first appear to be much less exciting. There were those huge cranes like I have only seen in Duluth Minnesota and in Charleston-- very cool-- and the really neat suspension bridges with the steel crossbeams. So we got through much of Arkansas before getting really tired and just pulling off some exit; we had no idea what exit it was or where we were but there appeared to be a selection of low-grade motels. When I awoke in the morning it was 4:30 am and the sun was already starting to rise. I was on eastern time so this was the 5:30 am I was used to in my time. I decided to go walk around a bit to see where I could run. I couldn't see much so I just started running down the one and only road that was there. It was a flat, straight, east west road which I later learned was highway 140. The experience was at best surreal. To either side of me appeared to be water as far as the eye could see and in between the streets, water. On the shoulder where I was running were all these toads. I mean, not just one or two toads, but like ten toads per square meter. Enough that I almost worried about stepping on them. As I ran, the toads were jumping off the road in front of me into the water. It seemed kind of like being in one of the Biblical plagues. When I got far enough down the road I came to a town of Osceola, AK. This is, as the sign to the city proclaimed, the home of THE FIRST NASHVILLE COUNTRY STAR whose name was Buddy Jewel. Other than that, there was nothing really in Osceola, AK. I am not sure what that sign meant but I think there is a TV show called nashville country star, and so I guess maybe it's like an American Idol or something?
We awoke in Osceola and G was asleep so I went to the town to find some foods. There was really very little there. Luckily I had with me a loaf of yeast bread baguette, and the top part was not moldy, so I ate that, and some of the great berries from Chinatown, and also a strange kind of cereal bar which was supposed to be Golden Grahams but it was pretty nasty, so I only had a bite or so. In other words, I ate much of the marginally healthy stuff and needed to replenish the epic chubby one with some MCDONALDS. I put this little vignette here to discuss the dialect of those in Osceola.
Me: "I'd like a bacon, egg, cheese biscuit meal and two medium coffees."
McDonalds: "Hrrrmurrrnycurrmrrsyuuuwaneeeenurrrcurrrfeh?"
Me: "Uhm... how much?"
McDonalds: "I say-uhd, hurr murrrny currmurrs yuuu wan eeeen urrr currfeh?"
Me: "Creamers? Uhm, just throw a few in the bag."
McDonalds: "Thuh bay-ugh? Urrrr wan-eyt turr gow?!"
Me: "Yeah, something like that."
They say that in literature you can tell the elite southern from the southern backwoods by the presence of the letter "r." "Elite" southern (cities like Savannah, Charleston) eliminate the "r" altogether. Southern backwoods over emphasize the "r." I offer the above as support to the linguistic arguement.
With the sun up I learned that the great water fields of Osceola were actually not lakes... but flats of bogged over pig doo-doo as far as the eye could see. And with the sun up, the whole place began to smell like it was on the same level as giant fields of pig doo-doo backing in the summer sun. So we quickly booked it out of that joint and headed on up the great highway to St. Louis.
St. Louis, I think, is the first thing that looks different from Atlanta over. It is a really cool town. The buildings are kind of old and brick and there is a huge arch, and the Mississippi River is running through it. There was a cardinals (baseball) game on while we were there so many people were out at brewpubs having classic lunch fair. We went to some really classic little american place with a great, authentic baseball atmosphere. Cardinals game was on a lot of TVs. And they had what was probably an entire head of lettuce in my salad. Excellent, go STL!
After STL we headed west for approximately forever. Missouri is a bigger state than one would think. We finally got through Kansas city, which I think is the second cool 'gateway' to the west. As soon as we passed into Kansas it was BAM! change of landscape. The land begins to roll here; the dirt is black because it is mollisols, and that was hugely exciting to me-- real MOLLISOLS! The best soils! Everything is ridiculously lush.
We planned to stop in Topeka/Google, but we missed it, and instead found ourselves in Junction City, which is where we are now. This place is really neat; just down the road is a classic western town with the old stone construction. There are just these awesome precision ag farms everywhere around here. When I think of ideal farming in my head this is what I picture; it's really neat to see it for real. I like Kansas.
Today's journey will get is into CO, who knows how far. We've got at least 4 days there to explore the rockies and such, so it should be awesome. Then it's north to WY, Montana, and Idaho for a bit before cutting across northern Nevada and into SFO probably around the 15 or 16. We'll chill there a few days and then I'm headed up to Corvallis to move into my new home; AKA drive back and forth to Portland many times buying furniture and trying to figure out how to fit my bed into the subcompact!
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