In Texas by nightfall??? LOL! Heck, I drove FIFTEEN hours today, and just made it over the border into Oklahoma.
Of course, it didn't help that when I started off from Knoxville TN this AM (7:30, rush hour?) I ran smack into the nightmare of route 40 being closed in both directions because of an accident. Took me an hour and a half to get out of town. On the other hand, I had lots of the occasion to wander-drive side streets in town looking for a way out, which was interesting up to a point, especially when I was proposed to in the parking lot of a convenience store in which I hoped to buy a map (I'm old fashioned that way), the same store owned by an Indian who walked out of his store with me to explain in great and accurate (thankfully) detail how to detour .
The drive between Knoxville and Nashville on 40 is beautiful, minus the jarring brief sight of the Oak Ridge nuclear power plant right in plain sight, on the Clinch River. Saw lots of signs for the Opry going through Nashville, but hit it at lunch hour with mega construction on 40, so it went by in a bit of a blur.
Next up, Memphis, where I really wanted to stop because of Neesaki's lovely tip about great BBQ. The morning hours lost kept throwing off timing, though, and I was nearing Memphis not until around 3:30, getting close to rush hour, when boom! Major thunderstorm, couldn't see more than a few dozen feet in front of me, had to pull off to wait it out. By then needed to scram before the traffic hit in earnest. Onwards to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Have to say I thought it pretty funny to see a GIGANTIC vote for Trump billboard right smack there in Clinton land. Not trying to be political, just commenting on the sheer audacity of the thing, lol.
My top picks for today's park names : Frozen Head State Park (TN) and Frog Suck State Park, Arkansas.
Finally Registered - I was hoping on surprising you, because Im ending up travelling through OKC alone after all, but I'll be going through tomorrow early AM. I'm in Roland, Oklahoma now, right across from a Cherokee casino. A Cherokee truck driver here (in the convenience store) asked me to go gambling with him tonight, lol.
After 15 hours of driving all I want to do is feel cold (100 degrees today!!) and to get some sleep.
If I drove straight to Mesa from here, still 1,100 miles away.
PS to y'all southerners. I haven't trekked through the south in many years. Being here makes me feel like such a Yankee. I've encountered such really warm, nice, helpful people everywhere, but I definitely am aware of being far away from my home in the north.
Listening to local radio is a part of that. I tuned into someone mid speech saying Phillip so and so was comparable to a Nazi officer who killed millions of Jews, and I'm thinking- wth? Who is he talking about??? And a sentence later, this feller is saying that telling folks in (didn't catch where) that homosexuality was acceptable was the equivalent of mass murder.
No offense to anyone, but YIKES!!! Turned that channel lickety split. :O
Should be in New Mexico by tomorrow night. Till then.