We had planned to go on at length about the rolling hills of eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. But the Internet here at the Fairfield Inn in Weatherford, OK is so tragically slow, that we’re keeping it brief.
USA 2018
Day 10 — Chilled… were the Kansas City Royals
Whew, that was ugly. The game, not the weather. Or the company. Most of the country is in a heat-wave, or just plain hot. Every day of this trip has seen daytime temperatures in the 90s and night-time temps into the 80s. It was 77 degrees last night at Kaufman Stadium; perfect baseball weather. Our seats were in the shade. We were more-or-less behind home plate. There was a gentle breeze. We were with friends. It does not really matter that the game got ugly. It was a great night.
Oh but the game… It was a pitchers duel. Through six complete innings each team had one hit. (And, boy, does that make for a fast game!) The Reds score two runs in the seventh on a couple of hits and two (!) errors. Shockingly, lots of fans headed for the exits. But wait, there’s less. They, the Royals, gave up another run in the eighth driving more fans away. By they time the Reds hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. At least getting out of the parking lot was easy.
Still, perfect weather, great friends and baseball (of any quality) all makes for a great evening.
Here’s the photo, you can compare it to the artists pre-game rendition on the Day 9 post.
So that was the evening of day nine. Today, day 10, was mellow and easy-going. No specific plans other than dinner at a local restaurant with a lot of gluten-free options. Specifically, we went to Cooper’s Hawk and winery and restaurant. It was good, everyone enjoyed their meals and the gluten-free desserts.
Day 9 — Still chilling…
Today we had a little more of a plan than yesterday. But we didn’t get much more done! The fun event for today is a baseball game at Kaufman Stadium. We’ll see the Royals play the Cincinnati Reds. We’re writing this post before the game. So instead of a photo, we have an artist’s rendition of the view we expect to see from our seats. We may be updating this tomorrow…
Day 8 — Chilling (not) in KC
It’s hot everywhere. And humid. But we took a photo; so today happened. We actually are chilling, staying with friends in Kansas City. We had a nice breakfast, did some re-supply in Target, ate lunch in Whole Foods, went to Starbucks (of course) and didn’t plan any of it.
We did visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum. The Arabia was a Missouri River steamboat that sank in 1856. It carried 200 tons of cargo with it. Over time the channel, and the whole river, moved quite a bit. In 1987 two families of fathers and sons discovered it under a farmer’s field. They spent about a million bucks excavating it and what remained of its cargo. The cargo, that which had not washed away during the sinking, was remarkably well-preserved. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, you can read the website if you like.
The most interesting thing, in the writer’s opinion, is this: Civil War historians and buffs have long argued about various facets of life at the time. Then these guys raised (or dug up) the boat and its cargo and settled lots of these questions. For example, they found many pens, ink wells and lots of paper indicating the people of the time and region were better educated and more literate than thought. So yeah, that.
As promised, a photo:
Day 7 — Ever hear that expression…
… “He was only here long enough for a cup of coffee.” That was us with Arkansas. We drove about 450 miles from Memphis to Kansas City. That’s 1.55 Spokanes to you sir. It was our longest day on the road so far. And the end of the first week.
So far so good. The car is working well. The humans are working well. We’ve had a good mix of driving and not driving and just enough touristy stuff to make it vacationy but not too vacationy.
Anyway, back to Arkansas. It’s between western Tennessee and western Missouri, so we kind-a had to go there. We cut across on a diagonal and got… a cup of coffee of course. You definitely feel the geography change as you go from the deep South (mostly flat) to the Ozark Mountains. We weren’t on many Interstates, so it was a slowish drive.
We’re 1,200 miles in, about a third. States visited so far: GA, AL, MS, LA (very briefly), TN, AR (passed through) and MO. Soon the states get bigger…
No photos today, ’cause we didn’t take any.
Day 6 — Walking in Memphis
Memphis is a musical town, so we’ll keep the references coming. We’ve read that over 1,000 songs reference Memphis. On any top 100 list of Memphis songs you’ll find Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis. So that’s what we did. For a while anyway. It’s 97 freaking degrees here. And humid. They say it’s raining back home. And cool. Sounds good right now!
We did find a great gluten-free breakfast place called Bedrock Market and Cafe. We might have had the best waffles ever. Or at least for a long time. Cornbread waffles at home are pretty special. Tomorow we need to get going early-ish, so we may try UberEats for the first time and have some waffles delivered to the hotel. Or maybe we’ll just swing by there on the way out of town.
On our walkabout we saw the Gibson Guitar factory, an MLK memorial (there are several), Beale Street, the arena, the ballpark, Starbucks (of course) and the original Main street. Then the heat sent us indoors again.
Beale Street
We had a small lunch at Whole Foods, because that’s exactly the sort of thing people from Seattle do. And then dinner at Babalu. It’s a Taco and Tapas place that started in Jackson, MS and is spreading out from there. Delicious!
We spent last night, and will spend tonight, in the Peabody Hotel. It’s a luxury hotel downtown. It certainly has luxury prices. The room is very nice, but no refrigerator (which we appreciate when we travel by car.) The hotel is famous for their ducks. Yeah, ducks. But not to eat. To watch. They live on the roof. Everyday at 11am they take the elevator down to the lobby and jump in the fountain where they frolic until 5pm. Then they reverse the trip. How do they push the elevator buttons you ask? They don’t. They have a “Duckmaster” who guides them. Really. That’s a job.
People line up for thirty or so minutes to get a good spot to watch the ducks. But you can check it out here. We just saved you a trip to Memphis and about $450. You’re welcome.
This map shows where we’ve been so far.
The car has exactly 800 miles on it; it had 19 when we started. We’ve filled up once and will do so again tomorrow. The tank is pretty big, about 23 gallons, and we’re getting about 22 MPG. Once we hit 2,000 miles we can start to stretch it out. Meaning revs over 4,500. Meaning…
OK, one more Memphis song: Memphis in the Meantime from John Hiatt. See. Him. Live.
Day 5 — I’ve Seen the Bright Lights of Memphis and the (not) Commodore Hotel
Little Feat got it wrong. Or at least wrong-ish. Or maybe they wrote “Dixie Chicken” after a night of intense partying. They were known for partying. Whatever. There is no Commodore Hotel in Memphis. There is good food, especially BBQ, and good music. But the actual Commodore Hotel is 140 miles away in Linden, TN.
We spent the day taking our time between Vicksburg and Memphis. We’ve been in the suburbs of cities (Atlanta, Montgomery) or in small cities (Vicksburg) until now. We’re in downtown Memphis tonight and tomorrow. It’s a real city-downtown; big buildings, people everywhere, walk to lots of interesting places, basketball arena, baseball field, etc. And Starbucks.
We ate at the Rendezvous. They are famous for dry-rub pork ribs. We’re in meat-coma at this point, so this will be a short post.
Day 4 — The (Shrimp & Grits) of Vicksburg
A general theme of our trip so far is the friendliness of the people we have met. Tonight we had a very nice dinner at Anchuka Cafe. Our waitress could not assure us that any of their salad dressings are gluten-free. So she made some from scratch. We had good salads and really good shrimp and grits:
The main plan for the day was to learn (more) about the seige at Vicksburg, grab a peak at the Mississippi River and poke our nose(es) into Louisiana, just to say we were there. Mission accomplished.
The Battle and subsequent siege of Vicksburg was very important in the Civil War. Control of the Mississippi was paramount to both sides. For the South, it provided for transportation of goods and materials, kept the North from doing the same, kept the CSA united along the southern states and allowed trade with Mexico. The North controlled most of the river, but not at Vicksburg. The South used the geography of Vicksburg and the surrounding area to its advantage. The city was high above the river to the west and protected by hilly terrain on the east. The North made taking control of Vicksburg a priority. General US Grant was in charge. Yeah, yeah, the one buried in Grant’s Tomb. Oh wait, did I give away the answer?
The North made two prolonged attacks in May of 1863. The South repelled both. The sides reached a stalemate and the North ‘laid siege’ to the city. The South surrendered the city about 45 days later. We spent about a half-day at the Vicksburg National Military Park. The driving tour takes you along the lines of the North and then lines of the South. It becomes clear how the terrain allowed the smaller army of the South to fend off the North. It’s also clear how the terrain kept the South boxed in allowing the siege to succeed.
It was an educational day. And we had two nice meals, at the Cafe and at “The Mad Baker”. Plus two museums, a quick visit to LA and a quick peek at the river. They have a great park from which to view the river, but it was closed off, for unknown reasons. So we sort-of borrowed the parking lot of a business to take a photo.
Day 3 — That’s One Spokane to You, Sir
It’s 290 miles from our house to our grandchildren’s house. Well, it’s their parents house. From our hotel in Montgomery to our hotel in Vicksburg it’s… 290 miles. So, this is our new measure of distance. Our longest day will be just over two Spokanes.
We made two stops along the way. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in Montgomery, AL earlier this year.
It’s the first national memorial for 4,400 victims of racial terror lynchings. These continued well into the 1900’s. It’s a sacred place and being there is a powerful experience. Those metal boxes hang from the ceiling and commemorate one to many victims per county.
We stopped in Selma to see the Edmund Pettus bridge. The bridge was the backdrop to some key events in the Civil Rights Movement.
We spend the rest of our one-Spokane trip cruising along. It’s hot and humid down here, so we did not spend a lot time out of the car. Lots of speed traps, but we made it through unscathed. The nearest Starbucks is forty miles away… Unheard of where we come from.
Day 2 — Das ist ein Auto
Today we picked up the car. It’s not too shabby…
The photo above is from the end of the delivery experience. To back up, the day started at 9am with a tour of the facility. It’s the corporate headquarters for PCNA (Porsche Cars North America.) We saw the museum which has a really nice collection of “bathtub” Porsches including the seventeenth ever made. They showed us the Restoration Center where they rebuild customers’ cars.
The main event followed. Of course when we got to the ‘delivery room’, the car was covered. They certainly drag out the suspense. We were blown away when we saw the car for the first time. It came out better than we expected.
The car is certainly complicated. We spent ninety minutes reviewing features, getting the phones paired and getting the car itself online. Later on when we drove off, we realized we have a ton more learning in front of us. But, before that, I did a ninety minute track session. That was fun! Fortunately you drive one of their cars. I’m sure I killed a serious amount of tire life.
Then we had lunch in their restaurant, shopped in the gift store and got lost on the way to retrieve our car from the parking garage. A random Porsche employee was nice enough to walk us out to our car. But first he took us inside the restoration center and introduced us to the craftsmen that work there. This is the engine from a 60’s 912. It’s basically an up-level Volkwagen Beetle engine from the period.
The car it belongs to is on the left. Finally we got our car, collected our luggage at the hotel and hit the road.
We planned a light travel day; about 170 miles or so to Montgomery, AL. We detoured to Tuskegee. You may have heard of the Tuskegee Airmen. We’ll keep it light here and not delve into other Tuskegee history. We had hoped to visit one or two museums in Tuskegee. They both closed at 4:30pm and our impromptu tour caused us to arrive too late. We did explore the campus of Tuskegee University a little, in the car.
In Montgomery, we found nice gluten-free BBQ at Shane’s Rib Shack. Meat coma ensued.
It’s hot and humid. People are friendly. Their Starbucks looks like any other Starbucks. Their Target looks like any other Target. The car rocks!