Nashville, TN

Don't really have anything to say. Just want to test this blog via e-mail thing.

In Nashville, waiting for a bluegrass band to take the stage at the Station Inn.

Days IV, V, VI, VII and VIII

I don't know if I'm going to be able to count high enough in Roman numerals to account for every day of the trip.

Bryan had to work Thursday and Friday, so during the day I was on my own. Nothing too exciting to report on that. Went to a movie, went to Denny's for coffee and read the paper, blah blah blah. On Thursday night Bryan and I went out and had a good time. It was the first time I'd ever seen people line dance (not counting TV).

Bryan leases either 50 acres or 100 (I can't remember which) and on Saturday we went out there. He's got a few deer feeders out there that sprinkle corn on the ground every so often. Next to those, he sets up a camera that has a motion detector and takes pictures of what comes around for the corn. He's got a lot of amazing pictures. Wild pigs, deer, possums, raccoons and bobcats even. So we (well, he) restocked the deer feeders and then we got out the guns.

I've never shot anything bigger than a pellet gun, but have always wanted to try it. We forgot a couple guns at Bryan's place, but we still had plenty. We shot 9mm and .40 caliber pistols, a .22 shotgun and another shotgun I can't remember the caliber of. It's two days later and my should is still a little tender, so it was a pretty big one. It was a fucking blast. No pun intended.

Left Bryan's Monday morning and stopped for the night in Texarkana, Arkansas. Or maybe Texarkana, TX. I'm not sure which side of the border I'm on, but it's just one big town anyway. I was looking for a place to stay on what I thought was the main drag when I saw a big sign that said, "VISITORS! DON'T STAY HERE! HOOKERS + DRUGGIES!" I took their advice and kept on driving, but still ended up in a craphole. I think I'm going to splurge on accommodations tomorrow night

I've got pictures that aren't pink now...

Here's the road leading up to Bryan's house. I wish I could spend the entire trip on roads like this.


Here are his two dogs. I want to say their names are Timba and Kinta. I don't think I have them right though. They're from some movie, so you should be able to figure out what their names are. Let me know if you do.



Before we headed out to the land he leases, Bryan was trying to jimmy-rig the gas door on his truck. He had superglued a magnet in there. This shot is of him saying, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" after he realized he glued the magnet into the wrong place.


This is Bryan trying to shoot a pop bottle about 70 yards away with the .22 caliber shotgun. I'm going to say he missed.


Here's me shooting the .40 at some pop cans in the tire track. The puff of dirt behind the cans is what I actually hit.


I don't know why I'm posting this one. There's a similar shot of Bryan, but he'd kick my ass if I posted it.


Here's what happens when you get lost in Texas. It was deeper than it looks.

Day III

Except for the first hour or so where I spent some time off the freeway for the first time, today's drive was pretty painful. Dallas is a bitch to drive through. I saw a multiplex drive-in movie theater which made it worthwhile somehow.

Got into Huntsville, where my friend Bryan lives, around 5:00. He wasn't off work until 7:00 so I stopped for some guacamole and then drove around town, refamiliarizing myself with it. They have a "Stan Musial World Series" in a couple weeks. No idea what that is. I'll have to ask Bryan since my Dad always liked Musial. I think. I used to think he was his favorite player but that turns out to be Nellie Fox.

There was more to my day, but I'm going to bed.

Day II

I'm boring myself just thinking about my day. I woke up, drove, stopped, drove some more, stopped, drove some more. I stopped for gas at a place called POPS. They server over 500 different kinds of soda and had walls as tall as a house made out of glass shelves. All the shelves were filled with bottles of pop. I got coffee.

I decided to buy a camera since the one I had borrowed was making everything overexposed and pink. I think I could have left "overexposed" out of that last sentence; pink is reason enough. Oh, the A/C is fixed! Did it myself, if you can count refrigerant-in-a-can as doing it yourself.

Day I

I wasn't going to leave today as I wanted to get the A/C in my car recharged. It's cool, but not cold. I couldn't find anybody that could do it the same day, so by 4:00 p.m. I was sitting around with nothing to do. Figuring I could get at least five hours in, I decided to take off.

Did you know that the further south you go, the hotter it gets? Did you know that even if you have a big, squishy butt, a Toyota Corolla's seat gets pretty uncomfortable after a few hours? This is what I learned today. I've got the latter taken care of, but I have a feeling I'm going to sweat a lot tomorrow. Bryan knows a good, cheap mechanic so I'm hoping I can gut it out until I get to Huntsville, TX (twelve more hours in the car until then).

Staying in Cameron, MO tonight. I'm planning on sitting in front of the air conditioner for the rest of the night, the only interruption to that being an occasional visit to the lobby to stick my head in the ice machine.

Today's drive

This is just before I pulled out. I think there's something wrong with my camera.