Sunday 7-11
Will post later.
Monday 7-12
Will post later.
Tuesday 7-13
Will post later.
Wednesday 7-14:
Slept in today. The room was quiet, the bed was so soft, the air (inside) was cool and I got the best sleep I've had in days - so I took advantage of it and slept in! When we checked out, we initiated a conversation with with manager/owner. She was so kind and we really got a sense of the work ethic in the area. She says she has a tremendous problem keeping employees because they work long enough to get their paperwork for welfare signed and then they quit and don't have to work for awhile. She has a hard time because she has to do whatever they don't, including making beds and cleaning rooms. She also commented on how hard it is to train her employees because they don't seem to have any idea how to clean or how to learn. What a sad state of affairs. The room and overall experience was great and we told her we would definitely write a positive, glowing review online for her!
So, we left West Memphis, Arkansas and drove into Memphis, Tennessee! We laughed and took a moving, photo tour of the city. Didn't really feel like stopping so early on.
We tried taking what I hoped would be a shorter route, but there were too many stoplights and not enough going so we found our way back onto I-40 towards Nashville.
After watching the billboards along the way, I decided we absolutely had to stop at this place called, "Country Store." Great choice! We filled up with gas and then checked out the store. Lots of hillbilly memorabilia, as well as Elvis stuff and fireworks. The bathroom was quite an experience. I really wish I had taken my camera in. There was a room with the sink and mirror. Then another door led into a room with 2 toilets next to each other with a small partition between them. Small as in, if you and someone else sat down at the same time, you could turn and look at each other and see each other! The ONLY situation I can see this arrangement working is if a mom and kid come in together. That might even be a stretch! Weird. Really. I managed to get somewhat trapped - couldn't get out of the sink room into the store because a lady had come in to change her baby's diaper - on the sink counter! No room for me to get out. How often can a person say that they have been trapped in a bathroom in the middle of Tennessee?!
Before leaving we went in search of the local post office so Amanda could buy stamps. When I was turning around in the middle of the road I noticed a corn field we could actually walk up to and take pictures in. So, we did - I was sure the farmer was going to come out of the corn and chase us off! We drove past one of the smallest banks I've ever seen to a post office about the size of -or maybe a little smaller than - the post office in Chimacum. Who would have thought that was possible?
Nashville was our next stop. We experienced lots of confusion trying to find the Whiskey Saloon - our chosen destination. After much frustration we finally landed in the parking lot of the Hard Rock Cafe. We walked down the street and discovered the Whiskey Cafe was closed for a Ted Nugent concert scheduled for tonight! We got to go in and tour it a bit while they were doing set up. We ended up going to eat at Hard Rock. It was fabulous! We had a great server who moved to Nashville to work on his music career. Yummy food, great music and atmosphere, and we even got our server to sign his autograph on our journals. Who knows? Maybe he'll be famous someday! He and the band he plays with will be playing a Jimmy Buffet concert this summer and he has done at least one radio interview. We'll keep an ear out for him!
Back on the road, headed to Chattanooga area to find Whitwell, Tennessee and the Holocaust Memorial created by the children of Whitwell Middle School and highlighted in the documentary, Paper Clips, that I show in class every year. The drive through this part of Tenn. is gorgeous! I can't believe how much I love this state! It is so green and the rock shows through in beautiful formations that make it really hard to stay focused on the road! The sun set over the mountains as we drove east. We made the turn up the highway that would take us to Whitwell just as dark was starting to fall. If you have ever read the book, Christy, you might remember how one of the characters was terrified of the sun setting over the mountains and the dark that ensued. I sort of understand that now. Not that I was terrified of course. Only that it seemed to get dark so quickly! I can see now how that might frighten someone so superstitious.
We made it to Whitwell in the dark, accompanied by the glowbugs/lightning bugs/fireflies along the way. We can easily see the priorities in town. Churches, schools, and gas stations are the main buildings. It really does have only one stoplight. We actually found the school fairly easily, but there was a gate across the drive. Very nice and definitely inspired by the memorial with paper clips and butterflies all over it. Since we couldn't get in, we decided to go to town and see if we could ask the locals how we could get to it. The gas station where we filled up was crazy-busy! Seemed like the main hang-out in town. We looked over and spied the grocery store and decided to go there to gather information. Bought some fruit and noticed the food prices seem as low as the gas prices around here!
The lady who bagged our purchases directed us to City Hall which also holds the police station. She said they would know how to help us. Good thing Amanda was with me because I probably would have just given up and gotten back on the road. She motivated me to pull up and walk in. The dispatcher was so nice! She pointed out the portable tape player and said we could take it and drive up to the memorial. She seemed quite relieved when we told her we would wait until tomorrow and see it in the day light. She was so great! So, we jumped back in the car and headed to Chattanooga.
It wasn't long before I was kind of regretting the route we had chosen. It was a narrow, hair-pin turn filled two lane road that went straight up a mountain! How is it that two nights in a row I have been driving such roads in utter darkness?! After almost killing us on the first turn, I settled down and got us safely up and then back down that road. I seriously have to stop choosing these routes! It was made even creepier by the strange bird sounds that fill the air here. I was sure an armadillo was going to cross the road in front of me and I was going to go sailing off a cliff on one of those hair-pin turns trying to avoid it! I'm sure it is beautiful in the daylight, but wow. I was more than relieved to come back into civilization and the freeway!
We are now settled into a nice Super 8 in Chattanooga. We got the last non-smoking room! Tomorrow we head back to Whitwell for photos and then maybe to Rock City for some spectacular views. Then off to the Smoky Mountains for a drive-through on our way to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit a dear friend and her husband and kids. Can't wait!
