Tennessee tango
Oct. 21st, 2006 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchaAfter a hot and muggy Wednesday in Memphis, Thursday dawned cloudy and wet. We decided to bail on Graceland, even if the deluxe tour included Lear jets, for financial reasons (Elvis may or may not be alive, but either way, he sure is filthy rich).
Linc had blessedly slept in a bit (light wakes him up, and the combination of good window blinds and the cloudy day helped a lot) so we were relatively well-rested, and so we decided to head off to Nashville. We found a local donut shop to fortify us for the road, and hit the road again.
The hardwood forests lining the roadways in Tennessee are all getting dressed in their fall colors, and even in the rain they were spectacular. This made me feel a bit better about not going further east to the Great Smoky Mountains; at least we got to see some of the show.
Clay caught a great shot of this cool arrangement of bikes on a camper in front of us:
We hit a deluge and the going was slow for an hour or so... although the trucks hardly seemed to notice it. After much moisture and a couple hours of “Josh in Japan,” I decided to crash in a motel instead of dealing with mud and muck. We found a Super 8 advertising wi-fi and an indoor pool, and settled in. Wendy’s provided the evening meal and we watched “Corpse Bride,” read another Snicket chapter, and turned in early.
Chowed down at the breakfast buffet, cleaned up the resulting mess when Linc tipped the table over, finished up postcards, and found a pharmacy... my right wrist has been chronically achey for a couple of months now, but in the last few days it progressed to full-blown acute tendonitis (another reason I decided on the hotel). Alleve, ice, and a splint all helped, and I’m just trying to rest it as much as I can while on the road. clay’s being a HUGE help with everything, thanks goodness.
More gorgeous scenery, more clouds, and Nashville! We found the local kids’ science museum, which our membership at Union Station covered again, yay. It was crowded with schoolkids and full of very loud and busy exhibits, but the boys seemed to enjoy it... Linc loved this walk-on piano, and could be found there quickly when he vanished into the chaos:
Clay had a lot of fun with this interactive light thingie... he’s juggling:
After all the noise in there, we stopped at an old cemetery we saw coming in... it turned out to be the Nashville historic graveyard, with some burials as early as the 1700s (though I couldn’t find any of those). Clay very kindly hung out near the van with Linc while I wandered through the peaceful park-like area. The sun had come out, my arm wasn’t hurting, the racket of the museum was fading and the fresh cool air was invigorating. I really needed some downtime, and this was just the ticket.
One thing I noticed at this cemetery: while the biggest memorials were for the men like philanthropists and governors and such, by far the coolest sites were for the women. There was one with a long and heartfelt paragraph of prose that clearly showed how heartbroken her husband was (the photo didn’t come out well, though)... another honoring a woman who taught kids via a riverboat, and had been honored for her valor during the civil war:
Sisters (there were quite a number of these), and another teacher and a traveler (or someone who loved Asian art, at least) next to each other:
There was also one woman who was the daughter of a signer of the constitution who married another signer, and there was another traveling woman:
And many, many, many tiny children’s and infant’s graves. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the majority... a reminder of how fortunate I am to live during this time as a woman and a mother.
We remembered it was Friday, and decided to try to find a Friday Night Magic tournament for Clay. The only one we could locate between Nashville and St. Louis (we’d decided to start heading back west) was in Clarksville.
We tried to get a photo of the fall colors, but none of them did the fireworks any justice. I’m including this one for Aunt Amanda, who put the little fireman on our antenna:
This place was horrid. Another wide expanse of strip-mall hell, as bad as Springfield (or maybe worse... it was dark, more construction, less signage). We finally found the card store (no sign on that, either) and I left Clay there to duel while I looked for a hotel. None. I drove ten miles one direction and found Fort Collins (I suppose this was the irritant that caused the massive sore that was Clarksville) but no lodging, and went the other way and only found tiny local hotels owned by cranky middle-eastern men who feigned astonishment that I asked for a non-smoking room (“But they are all smoking. Nobody has ever asked before!” Right.).
So I headed back to the card store to wait for him... Linc was a terror, knocking things over and grabbing dice with life scores on them. We walked down to the gas station a quarter mile away, and were mistaken by a kind soul as homeless (why else would anyone be walking on this stripmall horror at night? I could see her point). Clay very kindly dropped out of the tourney, and we fled Clarksville as fast as we could.
It was dark and late, and I took the first non-Clarksville exit to find a nice Comfort Inn. Another chapter of Snicket and we were snoring by 11 pm.
Today: Paducah and the National Quilt Museum!
Linc had blessedly slept in a bit (light wakes him up, and the combination of good window blinds and the cloudy day helped a lot) so we were relatively well-rested, and so we decided to head off to Nashville. We found a local donut shop to fortify us for the road, and hit the road again.
The hardwood forests lining the roadways in Tennessee are all getting dressed in their fall colors, and even in the rain they were spectacular. This made me feel a bit better about not going further east to the Great Smoky Mountains; at least we got to see some of the show.
Clay caught a great shot of this cool arrangement of bikes on a camper in front of us:
We hit a deluge and the going was slow for an hour or so... although the trucks hardly seemed to notice it. After much moisture and a couple hours of “Josh in Japan,” I decided to crash in a motel instead of dealing with mud and muck. We found a Super 8 advertising wi-fi and an indoor pool, and settled in. Wendy’s provided the evening meal and we watched “Corpse Bride,” read another Snicket chapter, and turned in early.
Chowed down at the breakfast buffet, cleaned up the resulting mess when Linc tipped the table over, finished up postcards, and found a pharmacy... my right wrist has been chronically achey for a couple of months now, but in the last few days it progressed to full-blown acute tendonitis (another reason I decided on the hotel). Alleve, ice, and a splint all helped, and I’m just trying to rest it as much as I can while on the road. clay’s being a HUGE help with everything, thanks goodness.
More gorgeous scenery, more clouds, and Nashville! We found the local kids’ science museum, which our membership at Union Station covered again, yay. It was crowded with schoolkids and full of very loud and busy exhibits, but the boys seemed to enjoy it... Linc loved this walk-on piano, and could be found there quickly when he vanished into the chaos:
Clay had a lot of fun with this interactive light thingie... he’s juggling:
After all the noise in there, we stopped at an old cemetery we saw coming in... it turned out to be the Nashville historic graveyard, with some burials as early as the 1700s (though I couldn’t find any of those). Clay very kindly hung out near the van with Linc while I wandered through the peaceful park-like area. The sun had come out, my arm wasn’t hurting, the racket of the museum was fading and the fresh cool air was invigorating. I really needed some downtime, and this was just the ticket.
One thing I noticed at this cemetery: while the biggest memorials were for the men like philanthropists and governors and such, by far the coolest sites were for the women. There was one with a long and heartfelt paragraph of prose that clearly showed how heartbroken her husband was (the photo didn’t come out well, though)... another honoring a woman who taught kids via a riverboat, and had been honored for her valor during the civil war:
Sisters (there were quite a number of these), and another teacher and a traveler (or someone who loved Asian art, at least) next to each other:
There was also one woman who was the daughter of a signer of the constitution who married another signer, and there was another traveling woman:
And many, many, many tiny children’s and infant’s graves. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the majority... a reminder of how fortunate I am to live during this time as a woman and a mother.
We remembered it was Friday, and decided to try to find a Friday Night Magic tournament for Clay. The only one we could locate between Nashville and St. Louis (we’d decided to start heading back west) was in Clarksville.
We tried to get a photo of the fall colors, but none of them did the fireworks any justice. I’m including this one for Aunt Amanda, who put the little fireman on our antenna:
This place was horrid. Another wide expanse of strip-mall hell, as bad as Springfield (or maybe worse... it was dark, more construction, less signage). We finally found the card store (no sign on that, either) and I left Clay there to duel while I looked for a hotel. None. I drove ten miles one direction and found Fort Collins (I suppose this was the irritant that caused the massive sore that was Clarksville) but no lodging, and went the other way and only found tiny local hotels owned by cranky middle-eastern men who feigned astonishment that I asked for a non-smoking room (“But they are all smoking. Nobody has ever asked before!” Right.).
So I headed back to the card store to wait for him... Linc was a terror, knocking things over and grabbing dice with life scores on them. We walked down to the gas station a quarter mile away, and were mistaken by a kind soul as homeless (why else would anyone be walking on this stripmall horror at night? I could see her point). Clay very kindly dropped out of the tourney, and we fled Clarksville as fast as we could.
It was dark and late, and I took the first non-Clarksville exit to find a nice Comfort Inn. Another chapter of Snicket and we were snoring by 11 pm.
Today: Paducah and the National Quilt Museum!