The Road To Memphis
Today we dine in Memphis and sleep in Hot Springs.
Lexi Goforth
Lexi lives in a truck camper down by the river.
Fishing in Tennessee
It's spawning season. The fish are interested in things other than our rods. I mean bait.
Smoky Mountains
We may have been rather rash when we assumed that visiting the Smokey Mountains on a weekday would be simple. Possibly, because this was a weekday when the leaves were changing. Fortunately, we only needed a spot for Wednesday night, because Thursday was booked solid.
Cherokee National Forest
We are taking a mini road trip for a few days in the mountains. After visiting some museums it was dark. Too dark. The kind of dark you get when you are driving on a heavily forested road without street lamps and only very small and infrequent road signs. A rational person—upon discovering that the only thing poorer than the road markings was the cellphone reception—might have concluded that any hopes of camping should be abandoned. Instead, we decided to drive on.
New York City
We all knew that this was on the agenda, did we not? With all the putzing around the North East, The Big Apple could not be that long in the waiting. In fact, we had intended to visit New York earlier in this branch of the trip. Yet, we couldn't help but delay for the opportunity to house sit for an entire week in the West Village. One of our friends would be away for Burning Man and had a kitten that would be lonely. Thus, the date was set, and we were eager to visit all of our favorite haunts* in the city that never sleeps.
Connecticut
There was one thing I wanted during our two day interlude by the sea: lobster. I also got a roll and some work done.
Vermont
We found a little slice of heaven in Vermont, a state shaped like a slice of pie. The Green Mountain State is emerald green and close to nature.
Niagara Falls
That time when we accidentally cross the US / Canada border without a passport. But we still got to see Niagara Falls. What an amazing waterfall!
Drake Well and Pithole
In our continuing quest to visit undervalued sites, we swung through Titusville, PA to see the one—and, indeed, the only—Drake Well, the world's first oil well. Sure, native Americans had been collecting oil from oil seeps for thousands of years before the Drake Well, but this was the first time that oil was collected by means of digging a well and attempting to pump the oil out of the ground. People already recognized the value of oil if only it could be collected in large amounts but Drake was the one the hit upon a process. While petroleum and its myriad of refined products may not be considered an environmentally friendly energy source today, at the time it was discovered, it was the answer to the dwindling number of whales, who were being hunted to make lamp oil and other products. Thus, my hat goes off to Drake and his whale saving enterprise.
Flying J
Flying J showers are awesome. After a couple of relatively successful sleepovers at Walmart, we decided to up our game and camp with the big boys: commercial truck drivers. Yes, when we realized that we wouldn’t reach our intended campground before it was dark (thanks, Hershey), we decided that there was little value left in even camping somewhere nice and opted, instead, for cheap.