Friday, April 14, 2006
Day 7.
I woke this morning with the road on my mind. We've been on the road going on a week now and are only half way to Mexico. I took a look at forries paperwork and realised we need to be in LA for a vet appointment on the 24th of this month, a little over 2 weeks away! So I decided that as pleasant as the mid west is, it ain't where i want to be spending my 2 months. With that in mind we made for a stopover in Memphis.
Crazy storms here - i've been dodging tornados the past week. First 27 were killed close to here last sunday when over a dozen tornados touched down, then todays storm that I passed through hit Nashville suburbs with several tornados that killed 11.. i was only there yesterday! The storm was intense though - at its peak I pulled off the road to sit it out, and thought i'd take the opportunity for a shower in the rain. No sooner i'd stripped off and headed out and hail the size of golf balls started pelting down!
Beale street is the heart of Memphis, and is closed off nightly for a pedestrian party with all of the blues pubs and clubs that line its street. I watched a few bands but its really a place you need to be with friends to really party.
Day 8.
We took a stroll around downtown Memphis, following the tram lines down Main street and then down to the banks of the Mississippi. There are many rivers I should not yet would swim in - the Mississippi isn't one of them.. huge and brown I'll simply add it to the list of other huge rivers I've seen - the Yangzee in China and the Mekong in the south east of asia.
With the toss of a coin I chose to cross the great Mississippi river into Arkansas and head west rather than head south and down through Mississippi. Wanting to put some miles between me and Memphis, I stuck to the interstate for the first time and headed down to the town of Little Rock. I parked up in an empty lot on a road off the interstate and went over to a gas station for some soda to mix my vokda with. The cashier was a helpful old woman who told me a couple of interesting things: first, that I could buy the size up of mountain dew for the same price as the one i picked off the shelf, and second, she didn't allow the guy before me to pay < $5 on visa, so he apparently went outside and pee'ed on his $5 note before bringing it back in to her! She had it soaking in bleach out the back. I was so astonished that i didn't think to tell her that the bleach would probably turn the currency into a piece of white paper. But don't get me wrong here, not all my conversations are like this, and I'm _not_ being like bill bryson and just crapping on the place. Its just that for a diary it's more interesting to read of the wacky and weird than the pleasant repeat_the_story_of_my_travels conversation that usually take place.
Day 9.
I headed off in search of the beautiful Saline river. An old guy at a fishing outfitters pointed me in the right direction, and also gave me some information about west Arkansas that easily changed my plan of following the hellish interstate down to Texas (the previous days drive on the interstate was my most depressing to date). I found the river and took a swim, and then abandoned the interstate for the more scenic route west. We stopped for a nap beside a stream at the very quaint town of Hot Springs, then continued to drive west through crystal country of Ouachita National Forest. I stopped to pick up a guy on the road carrying a backpack, cat, and dog (he wasn't carrying the dog). But he was already where he wanted to be - he'd hitched up from arizona to collect quartz rocks and then sell them up in the dakota's. We continued west through beautiful forest country and crossed the border into Oklahoma ("the native state as opposed to Arkansas's catch phrase "the natural state"). Despite what everyone says about Arkansas, the west of it wass really nice.
We travelled south down the far eastern side of Oklahoma, through more forests until we arrived at the town of Broken Bow. Here there is an Indian reserve called Choktaw Nation, and I couldn't resist walking through the small casino they had. A couple of depressing minutes later I was in searh of the nearest pub, and found it at Steel Tavern, just out of town. I walked in and thought i'd happened upon a willie nelson impersonation night. All the old guys were splitting images. It didn't seem like the friendliest place, and that wasn't helped by the fact I could barely understand a word of the Okies southern drawl. The owner, Tony took me outside and wanted to see my wallet - i wasn't sure why but i showed him my ID. Turns out pretty much all of them in there are old convicts who didn't want "the law" in their pub. Tony had done time for armed robbery, weapons violations, and drug running amongst other things, and the others had equally impressive legacies. I gave Frankie and his wife a lift home as I was heading that way, they invited me in to meet their dogs, and then (at 11pm) his wife proceeded to cook me some biscuit (scones)!
Day 10.
We headed south and took a swim in the brown Red River that is the border between Texas and Oklahoma, then headed into Texas. Sadly the only catch phase on the on the welcome sight was that it is "Proud home of president George Bush". I was determined to make it to Dallas and not leave until I'd had a couple of things done to the kombi. In Paris (Texas) I called up a guy on a volkswagen list that i had printed off and he gave me the number of a good mechanic in Dallas, and fortunately the mechanic was happy to do the work the next morning. We drove into Dallas and pulled the bike off the back for a trip around the downtown area. We stumbled upon the site of Kennedy's assasination - complete with guys there hawking information about bullet trajectories, angles of impact, etc etc... That night for the first time I called another guy on the volkswagen list, David, who was offering a safe place to park up for the night over in Fort Worth. I headed over to his place about 10pm and next thing I knew we're cruising the streets of Fort Worth on his motorbikes - he on his brand new harley, and me on his 2003 Triumph! We got home with a couple of hours of sleep time before I had to get the kombi into the mechanics the next morning.
Days 11 + 12.
The mechanic fixed a couple of vacuum leaks, adjusted the carbs, replaced a CV boot (the same one I'd replaced only 2000 miles ago), adjusted valves, retorqued the heads, set the timing, adjusted the brakes, and found the source of a small exhaust leak. Most of which i probably could have done.. if i had a spare week. That night we again headed off on the bikes to take in more of Fort Worths nightlife. The next day David was keen for another ride, so we headed down to the historic stockyards area of Fort Worth - once an important stop on the huge cattle drives that used to take place. Now quite touristy, they "drove" 30 longhorns down the main street as a demonstration of the areas heritage.
That evening I said goodbye to David and his wife and my beloved Triumph, and headed southwest until I got to the town of Brownwood. I found the only bar in town and had one beer - enough time to be there to hear a drunk guy hurling abuse (and popcorn) at a woman. So I left.
I woke this morning with the road on my mind. We've been on the road going on a week now and are only half way to Mexico. I took a look at forries paperwork and realised we need to be in LA for a vet appointment on the 24th of this month, a little over 2 weeks away! So I decided that as pleasant as the mid west is, it ain't where i want to be spending my 2 months. With that in mind we made for a stopover in Memphis.
Crazy storms here - i've been dodging tornados the past week. First 27 were killed close to here last sunday when over a dozen tornados touched down, then todays storm that I passed through hit Nashville suburbs with several tornados that killed 11.. i was only there yesterday! The storm was intense though - at its peak I pulled off the road to sit it out, and thought i'd take the opportunity for a shower in the rain. No sooner i'd stripped off and headed out and hail the size of golf balls started pelting down!
Beale street is the heart of Memphis, and is closed off nightly for a pedestrian party with all of the blues pubs and clubs that line its street. I watched a few bands but its really a place you need to be with friends to really party.
Day 8.
We took a stroll around downtown Memphis, following the tram lines down Main street and then down to the banks of the Mississippi. There are many rivers I should not yet would swim in - the Mississippi isn't one of them.. huge and brown I'll simply add it to the list of other huge rivers I've seen - the Yangzee in China and the Mekong in the south east of asia.
With the toss of a coin I chose to cross the great Mississippi river into Arkansas and head west rather than head south and down through Mississippi. Wanting to put some miles between me and Memphis, I stuck to the interstate for the first time and headed down to the town of Little Rock. I parked up in an empty lot on a road off the interstate and went over to a gas station for some soda to mix my vokda with. The cashier was a helpful old woman who told me a couple of interesting things: first, that I could buy the size up of mountain dew for the same price as the one i picked off the shelf, and second, she didn't allow the guy before me to pay < $5 on visa, so he apparently went outside and pee'ed on his $5 note before bringing it back in to her! She had it soaking in bleach out the back. I was so astonished that i didn't think to tell her that the bleach would probably turn the currency into a piece of white paper. But don't get me wrong here, not all my conversations are like this, and I'm _not_ being like bill bryson and just crapping on the place. Its just that for a diary it's more interesting to read of the wacky and weird than the pleasant repeat_the_story_of_my_travels conversation that usually take place.
Day 9.
I headed off in search of the beautiful Saline river. An old guy at a fishing outfitters pointed me in the right direction, and also gave me some information about west Arkansas that easily changed my plan of following the hellish interstate down to Texas (the previous days drive on the interstate was my most depressing to date). I found the river and took a swim, and then abandoned the interstate for the more scenic route west. We stopped for a nap beside a stream at the very quaint town of Hot Springs, then continued to drive west through crystal country of Ouachita National Forest. I stopped to pick up a guy on the road carrying a backpack, cat, and dog (he wasn't carrying the dog). But he was already where he wanted to be - he'd hitched up from arizona to collect quartz rocks and then sell them up in the dakota's. We continued west through beautiful forest country and crossed the border into Oklahoma ("the native state as opposed to Arkansas's catch phrase "the natural state"). Despite what everyone says about Arkansas, the west of it wass really nice.
We travelled south down the far eastern side of Oklahoma, through more forests until we arrived at the town of Broken Bow. Here there is an Indian reserve called Choktaw Nation, and I couldn't resist walking through the small casino they had. A couple of depressing minutes later I was in searh of the nearest pub, and found it at Steel Tavern, just out of town. I walked in and thought i'd happened upon a willie nelson impersonation night. All the old guys were splitting images. It didn't seem like the friendliest place, and that wasn't helped by the fact I could barely understand a word of the Okies southern drawl. The owner, Tony took me outside and wanted to see my wallet - i wasn't sure why but i showed him my ID. Turns out pretty much all of them in there are old convicts who didn't want "the law" in their pub. Tony had done time for armed robbery, weapons violations, and drug running amongst other things, and the others had equally impressive legacies. I gave Frankie and his wife a lift home as I was heading that way, they invited me in to meet their dogs, and then (at 11pm) his wife proceeded to cook me some biscuit (scones)!
Day 10.
We headed south and took a swim in the brown Red River that is the border between Texas and Oklahoma, then headed into Texas. Sadly the only catch phase on the on the welcome sight was that it is "Proud home of president George Bush". I was determined to make it to Dallas and not leave until I'd had a couple of things done to the kombi. In Paris (Texas) I called up a guy on a volkswagen list that i had printed off and he gave me the number of a good mechanic in Dallas, and fortunately the mechanic was happy to do the work the next morning. We drove into Dallas and pulled the bike off the back for a trip around the downtown area. We stumbled upon the site of Kennedy's assasination - complete with guys there hawking information about bullet trajectories, angles of impact, etc etc... That night for the first time I called another guy on the volkswagen list, David, who was offering a safe place to park up for the night over in Fort Worth. I headed over to his place about 10pm and next thing I knew we're cruising the streets of Fort Worth on his motorbikes - he on his brand new harley, and me on his 2003 Triumph! We got home with a couple of hours of sleep time before I had to get the kombi into the mechanics the next morning.
Days 11 + 12.
The mechanic fixed a couple of vacuum leaks, adjusted the carbs, replaced a CV boot (the same one I'd replaced only 2000 miles ago), adjusted valves, retorqued the heads, set the timing, adjusted the brakes, and found the source of a small exhaust leak. Most of which i probably could have done.. if i had a spare week. That night we again headed off on the bikes to take in more of Fort Worths nightlife. The next day David was keen for another ride, so we headed down to the historic stockyards area of Fort Worth - once an important stop on the huge cattle drives that used to take place. Now quite touristy, they "drove" 30 longhorns down the main street as a demonstration of the areas heritage.
That evening I said goodbye to David and his wife and my beloved Triumph, and headed southwest until I got to the town of Brownwood. I found the only bar in town and had one beer - enough time to be there to hear a drunk guy hurling abuse (and popcorn) at a woman. So I left.
memphis, tennessee
beale street, memphis
the mississippi
nope, i didn't stay there
forrie, as usual, doesn't suffer too much
frankie and june steel - met them during my only night in oklahoma
dallas has some neat sculptures
and its also the place where JFK was assassinated... right behind me in fact.
downtown dallas in the background..
ummm.. say no more.
met a guy with a couple of bike and spent 3 days in fort worth, tx cruising around
