The Great 'Drive South' Summer of 2009 Road Trip

Part One
Day One - July 5th

Now that Shannon is a teacher, with a wonderful twelve week hiatus beckoning, she decided she wanted to take a road trip so that she could explore a part of the country she’s never been to before. We kicked around a few ideas and settled on the southern states, with the main destination being New Orleans. Heather and Colleen were unable to accompany us, given their maternal duties. Meaghan is currently in Texas with the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore, and luckily she was able to break away for two days. She planned to rent a car and meet us in New Orleans.

The whole thing was easy to plan, we thought about what we wanted to see and how to map out the route. We made a few alterations along the way and ended up with a daunting itinerary – 2,000 miles, 30 hours of driving, six days. But I was excited about the opportunity to spend quality time with Shannon, and see new things. I have a reliable car, AAA, and I just bought a Garmin GPS. We have cell phones and credit cards. Life is so much easier now than it used to be. We’ve evolved into a culture of comfort and we’re well-prepared for trouble. I considered getting a radar detector, knowing my propensity for speeding. Instead I opted for two hundred dollars in cash to be tucked away in my wallet, so that I could pay any speeding fine on the spot and not have to worry about coming back to God-Knows-Where, Alabama to attend traffic court. And I told myself to PLEASE keep to a speed limit no more than 7 miles over the maximum. (I did entertain more than one fantasy about being arrested and thrown into a county jail in a backwater town because I talked back to a sheriff with missing teeth and tobacco stains on his shirt. An unfair stereotype, I know)

We decided upon our main route, and broke it apart the best way to pick our daily destinations. Doing this made the first day the worst day, but we knew going in it would be the worst so we just bit the bullet. We wanted to get as close to N.O. as we could so we decided to push all the way to Jackson, Mississippi. That would allow us an easier ride to New Orleans, and then two days to rest there with no driving. It also allowed us a few hours to explore Mississippi before we went further south. But I’m getting ahead of myself – I’ll come back to that.

So, our route took us down through Illinois. We woke up at 3:30 – Shannon spent the night with us. I had a restless sleep – knowing our adventure was beginning did not allow for deep, restful sleep, and I was already worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Just before our departure, I left a comment on Facebook – the Blues Brothers quote about driving off while it was dark and we were wearing sunglasses. We took off at 4 AM, with a cooler of diet cokes and bottled water, a bag of snacks and plastic bags for garbage, and headed to Memphis. Of course Elvis’ Graceland was our first attraction. We bought our timed-entry tickets in advance, picking our arrival time according to Google Maps knowing how accurate that usually is. It was. We parked in the small Graceland lot and followed a mostly) covered walkway to the welcome building. Got our tickets and waited for a shuttle. That’s the process and they have it down to a science. The whole thing seemed very well managed, and it appeared that considerable attention had been paid to the relative comfort of the guests. It has to cost a lot to run the operation, but the tickets weren’t cheap at $32 each, so I’m sure it’s making money for Elvis’ estate. The shuttle bus took us through the famous Graceland music notes gate, and up the drive. Graceland is situated in the middle of a depressed looking urban area. I think when he bought it in 1957, it was out in the country on the edge of Memphis. Now, it’s basically a very nice large house, not a mansion by any means, on a large piece of property. It’s surrounded by a brick fence and once inside you feel that feeling of southern gentility, with the long drive through lawn and trees, up to a beautiful stone house. We were given headsets that allowed our self-guided tour. They tuned us in to the different room locations with all the pertinent info. The whole place was like a trip back to the 70’s, left as it was at the time of his death in 1977. The house was full of shag carpeting, and the appliances, fixtures, TV’s, etc were obviously once top of the line, state of the art, and now just relics. Several buildings were devoted to Elvis’ awards, costumes, and memorabilia. We also paid our respects to the man himself while standing at his grave, also on the property. I came away being reminded of his accomplishments, which were considerable, but also a little sad at his final chapter.

Google had indeed been accurate, but unfortunately it didn’t tell us that it would be raining, so that was a disappointment. We had the foresight to throw umbrellas into the car, but it had only been overcast when we got there so we had left them behind. By the time we got out it was POURING! We got as close to the car as we could following the covered walkways, but then the moment of truth came – another 100 yards to the car, no umbrellas, and no knight in shining armor Mike to sacrifice himself to the elements and run for the car while the women folk stayed dry. We waited for a break in the rain until our impatience took over our desire to prevent getting saturated. Then of course it only made sense for one of us to get wet, and Shannon had her camera, so I started running. After the first 10 steps, once I was already soaked, it didn’t really matter. But it was so unpleasant, mostly due to the fact that it wasn’t just rain I was dealing with. It was the flood under my feet caused by the torrents of water. I was sloshing through at least 4 inches – it was like wading through a stream. Still, I laughed. Because there’s a fine line between the ridiculous and the sublime. Because once you dive in, you need to swim. Once you decide, you need to go all the way. Etc etc etc. And at least I was rewarded with one tic mark in the ‘adventures on our road trip’ column.

I got the car, got Shannon, and got the hell out of town.

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