Stage Six Recap

Pictures:
Me waving goodbye to life West of the Mississippi
Mom and Dad and the Muddy Waters
Mom looking fabulous in the Cyprus Grove Park in Jackson, Tennessee.

Hello there-
Tonight finds us in Jackson, Tennessee. It is unexpectedly cool, only 80 so degrees, but pretty humid. Make me feel like I am back in Costa Rica! What a busy day we've had.

Last night we stayed up late reading, and Mom snuck out to get cookies from the tea service. I tricked her into snuggling with me and we stayed up late chatting. So no swimming this morning :( Oh well. Nice breakfast, finally yogurt and cereal after lots of biscuits and gravy. We loaded up the car, which is getting more out of disheveled every day, and set off. Immediately stopped for gas and found ourselves engaged in an in depth conversation with the sparcely toothed attendant. He had lots to talk about, including a tip on where I could go buy a huge inflatable UNC something or rather (I could not understand about half of what he said) for $5. It sure is true about the Southern Hospitality, everyone seems completely eager to be your best friend. There were a couple of Boss Hogg looking characters enjoying a morning cup of joe.. it was just classic!

Dad started driving and made it all the way out of Arkansas and right to the outskirts of Memphis. I took over as designated city driver, drove across the muddy river, and got completely lost trying to find "Mud Island," a park celebrating the Mississippi River and it's history. We finally found it, after getting a scenic tour of the area, and parked the car in a very precarious sloping loading dock. I realized that this time being at the River was a whole different deal than the last time I was here two years ago, and had a minor panic attack. Something about being East of the Mississippi makes it seem more real. We took the friendly advice (again, eagerly given!) of the entrance attendant and made our way to a beautifully planned community on the island for "the best pizza around." It was also the town's video store. I snuck out to call the electric company in NC to activate my account and arrived back to enjoy a lovely feta, spinach and tomato pizza. We explored the very chic grocery store before piling back in and heading EAST (EVER EAST is our slogan!).

We continued on until we'd had enough. Which turned out to be Jackson, TN. We are about 2 hours from Nashville. It is a very funny town. Every chain store you could imagine and it is quite booming and bustling though we can't figure out why. We scoped the town and went to a liquour store, for some evening cocktails, which by law could only serve items containing alcohol. So free wine bottle opener for us!! Tonight we are in a Quality Inn (we are trying to give all the different chains a chance) and so far so good. Mom and I love to find the random jewels that each town has to offer so we immediately headed out to the Cyprus Grove Park. We weren't expecting much, but it was lovely. No one else was there, except for the ranger who seemed to be avoiding us, so we headed off on the raised boardwalk trails, not really knowing what to expect. It wove through a beautiful forest swamp of cypruses and cottonwood poplars. We spotted a cardinal and many fun dragonflies. Then we came apon the "Raptor Display" which were large cages each with a huge raptor in it, except for one with a pair of Golden Eagles. Ever since a wonderfully awful trip on Lake San Antonio searching hopelessly for Bald Eagles, they have always been a joke. "Look it's a juvenille!! (of some raven or some other less impressive bird)" But today, there sitting in his large pen looking regal was a bald eagle!! They were all injured birds, but seemed to be well taken care of. There were about 4 Goldens, the Bald, and one lovely owl.

We continued wandering about, even heading to the lake, but the bugs were starting to come out in full force. Definitely felt like I was in Costa Rica with the cool humidity and tons of insects. The lake was filled with catfish who we encouraged to eat up the buggers. We really realized we were in swamp land when I mistook a cicada for a hummingbird. That is one big cicada!! Mom tried to off herself for the second time in two days, helpfully trying to clear brush from the path knocked down by a recent storm, she nearly threw herself in the swamp along with it! We made it back (unbitten even!!) to find that the ranger had just given up and left, so we made our way back to town. Lots of joking about Deliverance in those back trails and we were a bit spooked to be without a map for most of it!

We'd originally planned on having our first real fried chicken dinner and bringing it back to Dad in the hotel room. We carefully combed the portion of town though to be near "Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken," which Mom found in the phone book, but to no avail. She even asked a gas station attendant who said it was right next door.. but no luck. We thought we'd lost it! But a second gas attendant told us that the place had gone out of business and recommended Chick-Fly, or so we thought, right across from the Walmart. We dutifully followed the "locals" advice and went. Turned out to be a Chik-fil-A, a chain, but it was a happening party, let me tell ya! There was a clown, a person in a cow suit, prizes given away.. just mayhem! We had to be a part of this scene and got three salads to go. I was completely overwhelmed by the outright excitement everyone had over this restaurant! Every restaurant's parking lot in the town was packed, apparently people like to spend their Friday nights out around here. There are 3 days of no sales tax to help low income folks buy school supplies but it seems everyone treats these days like a party. Fun stuff.

Back home to enjoy our chicken (it may have been Dad's favorite dinner yet!) and drink our bottle of wine. Sooooo.. no swimming tonight either it seems. Tomorrow morning, I promise! I got an invitation from a really great professor to rotate in his lab this fall, so Mom and I have been looking up various UNC prof's CV's, with her telling me which schools they went to are the best. Nice, lazy, evening.

Stage Seven will bring us into my home state for the next few years. We are thinking of getting off of I-40, our road for the last few days and states, and heading through the Smokey Mountains, and into western NC, including Asheville which is supposed to be a fabulous mountain town with tons of biking and kayaking. Bubs and I will be spending lots of time out there, I bet. Hopefully we will stay out around there tomorrow before heading down to King's Mountain, NC, the next day. This is where my Dad spend a lot of his youth and it will be fun to see what he recalls. Then Chapel Hill by Monday! This trip went amazingly fast.. kind of makes the country seem smaller. We've finished our third book on tape, our latest being another in the "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" series. We listen to lots of country music because it seems appropriate and I have been teaching my parents about the joys of Jack Johnson, ALO, and Matt Costa.

What a trip.. and no, Em.. we haven't completely lost it. Just goofing around and making lots of good memories. But we are thinking of going past Chapel Hill to the Atlantic just to say we've down the entire thing. And still get along!