Tennessee
Tennessee, I had such high hopes for thee. Between Memphis and Nashville alone are split some of the greatest musical history of our nation, soul, blues, country... Rock. You also contain many museums and great wonderful sights. All of which I had planned to stop and see. However, this was not to be. Rather the forces of fate and luck would use my exploration of Tennessee to remind me of the powers that be, and that I should not attempt to defy them, or to assume my own power to act in this world. For ever since I entered the bounds of Tennessee I was under the thumb of luck and the wheel of fortune that leads to both success and ruin.
Before I begin my short tale, there are two things you should all know. I am horrible at navigating while I drive. On highways it's not so bad, there's not too much going on. But on city streets I stress out and tend to mess up bad. To that effect, since my father left me to my journey, I have been using a gps mounted to my windshield. It has never lead me astray, and while I use a comprehensive road atlas to plan my routes, it is very hard to tell directions on it, and thus end up relying on the gps a lot. Secondly, the night before I headed to Memphis I had completed my planning out a few weeks. Including the time I would spend with family in NC, my stay in DC (I hope to be there on the 4th of July) and on to wherever I end up meeting with Kyle (MA Kyle).
With that said, let me begin the tale of Memphis. It was a bright day and my spirits were up recently, the featureless desert had finally given way to greenery and finally trees. The morning I was due to head to Memphis in order to see Graceland and the Civil Rights museum began inauspiciously. The clock in my room provided by the hotel, as well as the clock in the hotel lobby were one hour behind. Due to this I was up and getting on the road an hour later than planned. I did not know this at the time, but would find out soon as I stopped to call my father to wish him a happy father's day and enjoy a meal at IHOP. I was saddened by my late start, however I remained confident. I had called the museum and Graceland the day before, and the clerks on phone duty had respectively assured me that each attraction was open till 5pm. This would mean I'd have to put my foot to the floor for the next stretch of driving, but it was not impossible. My spirits remained high. Along the way I called my friend Kyle, the one in Anchorage, and had a good chat with him, and wished his father a happy father's day as well. That was when I arrived at Graceland, where a sign alerted me that today it was closing at 4pm, it was 3:50. Uh oh. I began to panic. But it was allright, I was sad about Graceland but I could still make it to the Civil Rights museum... which was closed. FUCK. I was tired, sad, and frustrated, I decided to proceed to my planned hotel for the night about 45min east of Memphis. I got there, found the accomidations perfectly acceptable and settled in for the night. At which point I began to break down.
Being faced with two choices of how to proceed, forward with the plan, or backwards to Memphis, forced me for the first time to consider what it really was that I'm doing out here. I mean really. I have known what parts of it were. To get away from Alaska and Washington and to see what the rest of this country is like. To see what other people are like, to scout places I might want to live in the future far or near... etc. But what was driving me? Was it truely a desire to see everything? Or did I really have a destination? The answer I came to was this: I had allowed my thoughts of seeing everything overwhelm the sense of relaxedness that I wanted to assume, as well as my own sense of taste and fulfillment. To start, I couldn't take such setbacks so seriously. It was unfortunate but the show must go on. I had formulated my plan and it was very comfortable. A good plan. Further, while I do not have a single specific destination besides Home at the very end, I do have little destinations along the way. Places that are definitely above and beyond just being a part of the journey. Tennessee was not one of these. Tennessee, which I am sure is wonderful and seems nice from what I did see of it, was really just a part of the journey, with my current goal being Asheville, NC. To see family, to visit friends, to not be lonely anymore. Yet another epiphany, I was lonely in these travelling parts. The journey itself has been very lonesome. A characteristic of the places that I considered destinations is that none of them fit the lonely bill. So I decided two things then and there. 1 I was tired and taking things too seriously, therefore I would not return to Memphis and spend the following day relaxing with a short drive as I had planned. 2 I had put together a good plan, and would stick to it from this point on... unless i need to deviate from it.
The day after the foiled Memphis visit I spent in the most relaxed way possible. I found an actual sit-down restraunt for lunch, I read and took my time eating, and then I got to my room around 2pm, where I proceeded to nap. From there I relaxed and read most of the afternoon while chatting with people online. I got to sleep early and woke up early to shower and look forward to my day in Nashville. My targets for the day were the Country Music Hall of Fame, the old Grand Ol' Oprey site, and the replica of the parthenon. That day... also began inauspiciously when I sneezed while shaving. This gave me three fine but deep cuts on the bottom of my left ear, and cut the very bottom tip of it completely off. Thank goodness for neosporin and bandaids. Despite this I had a relaxing morning and was able to get out of the hotel in a timely fasion. I packed my things and turned on the GPS to put in the address for the Country Music Hall of Fame. It froze as I was inputting the city. So I restarted and tried again... again it froze. Two hours, forty-five minutes, two hold sessions a chat with garmin's general help, a longer chat with garmin's computer help, a remote computer session made possible by the wireless internet that I was still leeching from the hotel, and several calls to my father later... my GPS was declared totally busted. I would either need to send it back into Garmin, or take it back to wherever I had gotten it. Additionally, my computer was now out of battery power... peachy keen. The lady in the hotel let me recharge my computer just long enough for me to figure out how to get to my next hotel using Google maps, and then told me to get lost. For the record we had mail ordered the GPS through Costco.
So there I was, Kingston Springs, TN pissed off, over heated, hungry, dehydrated, and without directions to anywhere but the next place to sleep at night. Through my father I had found out that if maybe I could make it to a Costco I could return this GPS and get a new one. With that information I went to the Subway there, bought a sandwitch with everything on it, and proceeded to eat it slowly, determined to taste every bite, while reading. This was a well spent exerciese, first it calmed me down. Second, it gave my father time to look up Costco's return policy and to try and find one along my route. As luck would have it, there was one about 20 minutes down the road without too many turns involved. Thus approached the highlight of my day. The people at Costco were wonderfully nice and understanding. Since I had the item order sheet from them they gave me no trouble about returning the router, and gave me a full refund... in store credit of course. This was fine, and soon I found my way to their electronics section where I bought myself another garmin gps. A cheaper one too, which really wasn't missing anything from the one I was using. By the time I got out of Costco, however, it was 4:30pm. Once more I had been defeated. However, in a much better state of mind than after Memphis I continued on, planning to go straight to my planned stop for the night. That's when I hit Nashville rushour traffic. By this point though I had a fuck it all attitude and happily used my newly found free time to rais the antenna of my car by sticking my hand out the window and then cycling through all the radio stations that Nashville had to offer. There were some good ones, and I enjoyed myself.
I arrived at my hotel just before dinner time. I had had a bad day. I looked like I had gotten into a barfight with a cat (my knuckles were all scraped up by this point too... no idea why..) and I was tired. But dammit this was a cheap room and it came with a King bed and a bigass flatscreen TV on the wall. I was going to fucking enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. I got up early the next morning and took my time. Got all checked out and on the way. Arrived at Asheville around 4pm est.
I had escaped Tennessee, and I will not tempt fate or luck for a good long while. Lotta writing for Tennessee. The glory that is Asheville shall be written tomorrow. Hopefully with pictures :D..
Before I begin my short tale, there are two things you should all know. I am horrible at navigating while I drive. On highways it's not so bad, there's not too much going on. But on city streets I stress out and tend to mess up bad. To that effect, since my father left me to my journey, I have been using a gps mounted to my windshield. It has never lead me astray, and while I use a comprehensive road atlas to plan my routes, it is very hard to tell directions on it, and thus end up relying on the gps a lot. Secondly, the night before I headed to Memphis I had completed my planning out a few weeks. Including the time I would spend with family in NC, my stay in DC (I hope to be there on the 4th of July) and on to wherever I end up meeting with Kyle (MA Kyle).
With that said, let me begin the tale of Memphis. It was a bright day and my spirits were up recently, the featureless desert had finally given way to greenery and finally trees. The morning I was due to head to Memphis in order to see Graceland and the Civil Rights museum began inauspiciously. The clock in my room provided by the hotel, as well as the clock in the hotel lobby were one hour behind. Due to this I was up and getting on the road an hour later than planned. I did not know this at the time, but would find out soon as I stopped to call my father to wish him a happy father's day and enjoy a meal at IHOP. I was saddened by my late start, however I remained confident. I had called the museum and Graceland the day before, and the clerks on phone duty had respectively assured me that each attraction was open till 5pm. This would mean I'd have to put my foot to the floor for the next stretch of driving, but it was not impossible. My spirits remained high. Along the way I called my friend Kyle, the one in Anchorage, and had a good chat with him, and wished his father a happy father's day as well. That was when I arrived at Graceland, where a sign alerted me that today it was closing at 4pm, it was 3:50. Uh oh. I began to panic. But it was allright, I was sad about Graceland but I could still make it to the Civil Rights museum... which was closed. FUCK. I was tired, sad, and frustrated, I decided to proceed to my planned hotel for the night about 45min east of Memphis. I got there, found the accomidations perfectly acceptable and settled in for the night. At which point I began to break down.
Being faced with two choices of how to proceed, forward with the plan, or backwards to Memphis, forced me for the first time to consider what it really was that I'm doing out here. I mean really. I have known what parts of it were. To get away from Alaska and Washington and to see what the rest of this country is like. To see what other people are like, to scout places I might want to live in the future far or near... etc. But what was driving me? Was it truely a desire to see everything? Or did I really have a destination? The answer I came to was this: I had allowed my thoughts of seeing everything overwhelm the sense of relaxedness that I wanted to assume, as well as my own sense of taste and fulfillment. To start, I couldn't take such setbacks so seriously. It was unfortunate but the show must go on. I had formulated my plan and it was very comfortable. A good plan. Further, while I do not have a single specific destination besides Home at the very end, I do have little destinations along the way. Places that are definitely above and beyond just being a part of the journey. Tennessee was not one of these. Tennessee, which I am sure is wonderful and seems nice from what I did see of it, was really just a part of the journey, with my current goal being Asheville, NC. To see family, to visit friends, to not be lonely anymore. Yet another epiphany, I was lonely in these travelling parts. The journey itself has been very lonesome. A characteristic of the places that I considered destinations is that none of them fit the lonely bill. So I decided two things then and there. 1 I was tired and taking things too seriously, therefore I would not return to Memphis and spend the following day relaxing with a short drive as I had planned. 2 I had put together a good plan, and would stick to it from this point on... unless i need to deviate from it.
The day after the foiled Memphis visit I spent in the most relaxed way possible. I found an actual sit-down restraunt for lunch, I read and took my time eating, and then I got to my room around 2pm, where I proceeded to nap. From there I relaxed and read most of the afternoon while chatting with people online. I got to sleep early and woke up early to shower and look forward to my day in Nashville. My targets for the day were the Country Music Hall of Fame, the old Grand Ol' Oprey site, and the replica of the parthenon. That day... also began inauspiciously when I sneezed while shaving. This gave me three fine but deep cuts on the bottom of my left ear, and cut the very bottom tip of it completely off. Thank goodness for neosporin and bandaids. Despite this I had a relaxing morning and was able to get out of the hotel in a timely fasion. I packed my things and turned on the GPS to put in the address for the Country Music Hall of Fame. It froze as I was inputting the city. So I restarted and tried again... again it froze. Two hours, forty-five minutes, two hold sessions a chat with garmin's general help, a longer chat with garmin's computer help, a remote computer session made possible by the wireless internet that I was still leeching from the hotel, and several calls to my father later... my GPS was declared totally busted. I would either need to send it back into Garmin, or take it back to wherever I had gotten it. Additionally, my computer was now out of battery power... peachy keen. The lady in the hotel let me recharge my computer just long enough for me to figure out how to get to my next hotel using Google maps, and then told me to get lost. For the record we had mail ordered the GPS through Costco.
So there I was, Kingston Springs, TN pissed off, over heated, hungry, dehydrated, and without directions to anywhere but the next place to sleep at night. Through my father I had found out that if maybe I could make it to a Costco I could return this GPS and get a new one. With that information I went to the Subway there, bought a sandwitch with everything on it, and proceeded to eat it slowly, determined to taste every bite, while reading. This was a well spent exerciese, first it calmed me down. Second, it gave my father time to look up Costco's return policy and to try and find one along my route. As luck would have it, there was one about 20 minutes down the road without too many turns involved. Thus approached the highlight of my day. The people at Costco were wonderfully nice and understanding. Since I had the item order sheet from them they gave me no trouble about returning the router, and gave me a full refund... in store credit of course. This was fine, and soon I found my way to their electronics section where I bought myself another garmin gps. A cheaper one too, which really wasn't missing anything from the one I was using. By the time I got out of Costco, however, it was 4:30pm. Once more I had been defeated. However, in a much better state of mind than after Memphis I continued on, planning to go straight to my planned stop for the night. That's when I hit Nashville rushour traffic. By this point though I had a fuck it all attitude and happily used my newly found free time to rais the antenna of my car by sticking my hand out the window and then cycling through all the radio stations that Nashville had to offer. There were some good ones, and I enjoyed myself.
I arrived at my hotel just before dinner time. I had had a bad day. I looked like I had gotten into a barfight with a cat (my knuckles were all scraped up by this point too... no idea why..) and I was tired. But dammit this was a cheap room and it came with a King bed and a bigass flatscreen TV on the wall. I was going to fucking enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. I got up early the next morning and took my time. Got all checked out and on the way. Arrived at Asheville around 4pm est.
I had escaped Tennessee, and I will not tempt fate or luck for a good long while. Lotta writing for Tennessee. The glory that is Asheville shall be written tomorrow. Hopefully with pictures :D..