Evening, Campers! It's,Silver Cliche' with you again. Tonight reporting from Holly Springs, Mississippi and Wall Doxey State Park. We have made a commitment to put the miles under our belly pan (that's an Airstream anatomical reference) and move steadily toward home. Today was another 5+ hours of driving which was good for about 350 miles. That included three states - Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. It's been a while since we hit three states in a day. A clear sign we are back in the east, although not yet back on Eastern Daylight Time.
I was going to post a google maps rendition of how we got here, but it was overkill. Here's what you need to know... From Barling, Arkansas get on I40 heading east. Go for an eternity (like 4 1/2 hours). When you see a huge river under you and a giant pyramid right next to it (make sure the pyramid has a "Bass Pro Shops" logo the size of the playing surface at Yankee stadium on it so you know you have the right pyramid... more on that later) get off I40, take a meandering combination of Memphis city streets that google maps will figure out for you, hop on I 22 south for 20 miles and BANG! you're there. If you reach the University of Mississippi at Oxford (Ole Miss!) you've gone a bit too far.
If you want, along the way stop in Little Rock for lunch at a barbecue place. And since "water always wins" keep an eye out for rain which was not too much trouble for us today, but tomorrow and Sunday are forecast between 60 and 80% all along the route.
So the highlight of the day was Memphis. We passed through the city last year heading west to Yellowstone. Mostly I remember traffic hang ups and the embarrassing condition of the infrastructure. Neither seems to have improved much, although today we took the I40 bridge because Google told us the accident on I55 (could pavement "irregularities" have contributed?) would bring us to a halt. Did you know there are only 17 road crossings of the Mississippi between Tennessee and the delta. That's 737 miles of river with a bridge every 45 miles on average. Two of those are in Memphis. Hey, I want you to be a better informed person for having read this. You're welcome... again.
There are two stories that strike the person passing through Memphis. 1.) transportation and 2.) monumental government waste. Let's take #1 first. Memphis is home to FedEx. 'nuf said. Seeing as how there is no direct connection worth a damn from I40 to I22, Google maps did literally route us on city streets. It did the same last year between I22 and I55. Each tour was a wonderland of modern transportation. At one point today we went along the southern border of Memphis International Airport (MIA). In the few minutes we took to cross there I saw five FedEx planes take off using three different, active runways. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. That's 12 hours off from their busy time. Geez. I just looked up the google maps "satellite view" of MIA. At whatever random time they flew over, there were 80 cargo aircraft in neat rows at various facilities on the north end of the field. There were 5 commercial aircraft at the passenger terminal. Welcome to Cargo-town, USA! In addition to FedEx, every other major freight carrier has a visible presence including UPS, the Postal Service and even the Air Force who had three C17 cargo planes very visibly parked at their hanger near our route. But wait... there's more! Near the airport is the Port of Memphis on the Mississippi which includes a multimodal cargo facility (that's where they pick up those 8x8x40 metal shipping containers and move them between ships, barges, trains and trucks.) So, right here in Memphis there is cargo coming and going on every conceivable conveyance and at speeds determined by a shippers willingness to pay. They can get your Amazon order to you overnight on a plan from anywhere to anywhere (with a connection in Memphis at 2:00 AM) or on the slow boat from China via the Mississippi and the last train to Clarksville. All I can say is WOW! Now let's turn to monumental government waste. Remember that pyramid? Guess who built it? Right. The City of Memphis and Shelby County. Oh they had grand plans. However, on opening night in 1991 with a Judd's concert planned it flooded. No bull. Evidently the arena had one of those rubber stoppers like an old bathtub but a really big one and nobody could find the chain for it. If you want the whole sad tale, read Wikipedia. The net is that the University of Memphis basketball program wouldn't even play there, the NBA team moved out of town (but kept the right to exclusive use of the arena... go figure) and after every other possibility was exhausted... a breakthrough!... Bass Pro Shops now has a mega store inside it... hence the logo. I poop you not. (Thanks for noticing. I'm trying to keep this blog at least as classy as Memphis itself). So, two lessons here, class: 1.) government should stick to governing and not real estate development and b.) if Donald trump becomes president I sure as poop hope he makes the transition from real estate development to governing better that the Memphis/Shelby team did going the other way. (And I know I mixed "1" and "b"... I have to do something to stimulate my brain now that all I have to look forward to is another 878 miles of driving through the southland and most hoodoos to photograph.)
So, here we are in Holly Springs. It's... raining... and heavily forested... and humid... which means it will continue raining on us for about 2 hours after the rain stops hitting the trees. Tomorrow is supposed to rain more as we traverse Mississippi (Yes, we will be near the Elvis Birthplace Shrine in Tupolo again. No we do not plan to stop. Look at last years blog if you need to see the picture again.) then we will cut southeastward across Alabama until we reach the Lake Point State Park Resort in Eufaula on the Georgia border. With luck, that will be our last over night stop on this trip and we will back the Cliche' into her home spot in Vero Beach on Sunday night. Like a major ocean liner coming to her home from a round-the-world voyage, she'll get some cleaning, polishing, maintenance and repairs (and a refitting to the factory interior since the recliners stay home next time) and be ready to go north in a month!
Stay tuned!
Later,
SC'
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