I was up at 4, thanks to Scott. He got me up and walked me out to my car. I thanked him for one of the greatest vacation experiences I've ever had, and was on my way to Nebraska. It was dark out when I started, but by the time I got into Nebraska, the sun was poking out. I was a bit sleepy coming into the (having only mildly recovered from the stuffy-headed, block-up-eared sleep-deprived weekend) I had an audio book going, a really compelling book called "Last Man Standing" about an FBI special forces guy who survives a massacre and tries to track down the attackers.
Around 11am, my ear was flaring up and getting really annoying. Listening to an audio book while driving is great, but the constant pressure on my left and right ears was getting really intense. I wanted to stop, and up ahead I saw the Archway Monument that Scott had told me about. Am I in Kearney already? I wondered. Perfect timing! I pulled off at the exit and spent an hour walking around the museum.
The Grand Platte River National Monument is an homage to the western migration, covering everything from the Oregon trail folks in covered wagons to the Mormon movement, and the impact on the Native Americans and how they interacted/traded/shared cultures as they went along. The tour involved wireless headphones which was interesting. It was a self-guided tour, where you'd enter little FM radio 'zones' and the new audio channel picks up as you walk into a new room. When the dialogue starts to repeat, you just move on to the next zone! Pretty neat!
It was a nice little break. I munched on a sandwich as I got back on the highway. Today was a detour day, meaning I was already off the beaten track, so whatever I wanted to see, I would stop and see. I was heading for Iowa to check that out. Maybe I'll get to Des Moines I thought. Just after Lincoln, Nebraska, I cut south along the border of Iowa. I finished my sandwich in a cornfield off the beaten path. It was a long, gravel road cutting through the cornfields, and I thought it'd be a perfect way to see what most of Iowa is probably like.
I got to St. Louis in the late afternoon, which was my goal for the day. I had been on the road about 14 hours at that point, and wasn't tired yet. So, I checked out the map to plan out my next 3-hour goal ( I drove in 3-hour chunks of time, plotting a city and getting to it, then moving on to the next. I found that this helped me cover more distance in a day by not keeping my eye on the prize and getting tired when I realized I was 600 miles away still.)
The 3-hour goal I picked from St. Louis wasn't Louisville or Lexington, as it probably should have been on my route home. Instead, I looked at myself in the rear view and reflected that if I was starting my job on Monday, I still really had about 4-5 days to see the country, and that after that point, it would take months to accrue the vacation time to be in a position where I could do this kind of thing. So I looked to the South. I've never been to Arkansas, I thought. I headed down along the border of Arkansas and landed finally around 10:45pm in West Memphis, Arkansas. I decided to leave my next day open in case I wanted to make a 3-hour visit to Little Rock, but part of me really wanted to do the tourist thing across the Mississippi in Memphis, Tennessee.
I got a really nice hotel room for the night and planned out my route, washed my face, made a fist with my toes and curled up into a ball. My ears pounded, but I tried to get my heart beat to a gentle rhythm. It must have worked, because I don't remember very much that happened after I cut out the light.
I was up at 9, got ready to leave and headed out to the Waffle House for a fast breakfast. Then, it was off to Memphis! There was a lot of traffic on the bridge coming into Tennessee, but when it cleared, I saw the Mud Island museum off to the side, so I pulled off to check that out.
The Mud Island museum is a quaint, three-level museum full of culture and history of boats, entertainment, transportation and everything else relating to the Mississippi and it's culture as the country developed. Outside of the museum, there is a half-mile replica of the actual Mississippi outside, which has water rushing through the concrete, to-scale, topographic layout of the windy river. Pretty neat! I wanted to see this mainly because it was a scene from The Firm, and I'm a big fan of that book/movie.
Once I got out of there, I went back to the car. It was 98 degrees outside. I headed south in Memphis, and finally hit Graceland. I hopped on the tour bus, and put on the audio device that guides people through the mansion. We pulled across the street to the front of the house, turned on our devices, and the audio tour took us through (in whatever language we wanted) the ins and outs of Graceland.
We walked through the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and then glanced into his jungle room (a really 70's tacky room that reminded him of his time in Hawaii, complete with shag green carpet on both the floor and ceiling!) The family stayed upstairs and his parents stayed on the first floor. Their kitchen looked to hold about 10 people at any given time, all cooking. The thing was huge. Apparently, this was the hub of the house, since people were coming in and being fed at all hours.
Downstairs, Elvis had a TV room with three TVs. He had heard that the president had three TVs so he could watch each network's coverage of the news. Elvis thought it was a great idea, so he did the same thing. Outside, there was a huge car port for all of his cars, a whole room for trophys and gold albums, and another room with his costumes and even more awards hanging on the wall. This guy was a huge star - the biggest of his day, and probably still the biggest. It wasn't until we saw all of these that it hit me about how big of an impact he made on the world. Out back, his gravesite (along with his parents and grandparents) was near a fountain and a really nice reflection area, all junked up with touristy flowers and "texas loves the King" signs.
With the tour now over, I grabbed some ice cream, shook out my ears and hit the trail. I was heading to Richmond, although it didn't seem like I should end things so quickly.
I got about 2 and a half hours from Memphis when I had to pull over for gas (and the inevitable squeegie windshield bug-wiping that I had to do probably 20 times that week). I pulled out the map to see where I was.I was in Jackson, Tennessee, a tiny little city, but it was only 1.5 hours from Mississippi. Hmmmm... Never been there....
I stocked up on more road food and within minutes was turned around, heading South to Mississippi.
...to be concluded....
