The Crossroads

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
Asked the Lord for mercy, "Save me if you please." 
--Eric Clapton Crossroads

A few years ago I read a book (hard to believe huh?) called Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.  In it, she takes a trip where she visits all the spots surrounding the assassinations of our four American Presidents.  It was a funny and interesting book and I highly recommend it.  She's a great writer.  When I started planning this trip, I found a book called Led Zepplin Crashed Here which detailed out the locations of all sorts of interesting spots regarding musicians.  Since music is a major part of my life I decided I would so something similar to Sarah's vacation only hitting spots around musicians who's music was important to me.  I'm a big blues fan and what better place to be than Mississippi which is the birthplace of the Delta Blues and the resting place of the Grandfather of the blues Robert Johnson.  My first stops on this part of my trip were Moorhead and Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Legend has it that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in Mississippi in exchange for his musical talent.  There is some disagreement as to which crossroads it was.  One version has it in Moorhead where the Southern Line crosses the Yellow Dog line.



Moorhead, Mississippi: where the Southern Crosses the Dog

The second version is at what is now the intersection of Highway 61 and 49 just outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. 

Intersection of Highway 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi

 I went to both and spent some time sitting there, waiting for the Devil to show up.  You know, just to see what he'd offer me for my soul.  Nothing happened. Well, except at both spots people kept walking up to me and telling me what they'd really like and asking if I could make it happen, was their soul worth it?  I didn't get what was up with that.  Wait a minute.  WAAIIIIITTT! No! They did NOT think that!  No way!  Did they SEE what I was driving?  Does a 1996 Lexus ES300 four door sedan say I have what it takes to make your fantasies come true?  Of course I was in Mississippi and Rucio doesn't have a cracked windshield or dings in the fenders.  Maybe that's considered a step up there.....

On my way to Moorhead and Clarksdale, I stopped in Greenwood where Robert Johnson is buried at Little Zion.  Like everything surrounding Robert's death, there is some doubt that this is his actual burial place.  Could be here at Little Zion or it could be over at Mount Pryor.  However, the back of the headstone has a testimonial by a eye witness that this is the real deal so that's good enough for me! 

I'd like to thank Sheila at the Shell station on Carrolton in Greenwood who not only took the time to write down detailed directions to Little Zion Cemetary but gave me her cell phone number as well so I could call her if I got lost. Way cool. 

Perfect Hell

If you are going through hell, keep going.  --Winston Churchill

You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas. --Davy Crockett

Dear Davy: There's a difference between the two? --Me

{I started this blog posting on my way from Carlsbad to San Antonio.  Forgot about it until today when I finally have internet access again after over a week without.}

Years ago I bought a computer game called Heaven and Hell.  The object of the game was to create the perfect Heaven and perfect Hell according to what the respective denizens of each preferred.  I never got the hang of Heaven but I had a pretty outstanding Hell going on.  I had created the Perfect Hell for my demons and they were thriving.  (I'm sure there are several of you who are not the least bit surprised that I excelled at this particular part of the game.) I also like to devise Hell for people I know.  That isn't as easy as you think.  What constitutes Heaven or Hell isn't the same for everyone.  You have to really get to know someone to know what would be their Perfect Hell.   I thought I knew Hell until I spent a week driving across the State of Texas this morning.  There is nothing that can prepare you for how incredibly vast and mind numbingly boring the drive through Texas is.  Mile after mile of empty nothingness.  This is the Universal Perfect Hell: driving across the State of Texas.  Forget the amatures at Guantanamo Bay. You wanna know where Bin Laden is?  Put those prisoners in a beater Toyota Celica with no AC, windows stick, there's a spring poking them in the rear end, a backseat driving wife and two fighting kids and a howling, smelly dog in the back seat.  It's 105 degrees outside and they have to drive Highway 10 end to end at 55 mph BEHIND a truck full of chickens.  If by some chance they aren't ready to give up his location at the end of the day, just whisper: "tomorrow, the kids will be puking their guts out, the dog will have gas and your wife will have PMS and you get to do this drive AGAIN."  That'll break 'em.

Can you imagine what this must have been like for the early settlers who had to cross it in covered wagons making an average speed of 10 miles per DAY?  Remember the Alamo?  Here's how the conversations in each camp really went:

Inside Santa Anna's camp:  Okay Amigos, we just marched across that god forsaken DESERT and found the only pretty spot in the entire state.  Look around, isn't this nice? Pretty little mission, nice river, trees.  Only problem is that mission is infested with gringos.  We need to eliminate them all.  If we win, we get to spend tomorrow night drinking beer by that lovely river.  If we lose, we have to march BACK...ACROSS....THAT!  So everyone bring their A game tomorrow otherwise I'm gonna make you walk home!

Inside the Alamo: We have got one heck of a problem here folks.  Santa Anna is camped outside with the entire Mexican Army.  We are outnumbered 40 to 1.  We have two choices: a) we can pack up and leave or b) we can fight to the death.  There's nothing for us back East so if we go with option A, we have to march across....THAT.  Do you know what is west of THAT?  New Mexico and Arizona.  Not an improvement.  Show of hands for option A?  B?  Okay, it's unanimous. We die. 

Yeah, the Alamo wasn't so much about keeping Texas but about not having to be the ones who had to leave the nicest area around.  We say Remember the Alamo.  The Mexicans say Guess who got stuck with Texas!  Maybe if we ask nice they will take it back. 



No, we aren't there yet so quit crying, wipe the snot off your face, put your big girl panties on, get in that car and DRIVE!!

After what seemed like eternity, I did finally reach San Antonio which is a gorgeous city and worth going to.  Of course, I did have to get OUT of Texas still.....

Me with my little brother, his wife and two sons. Notice the identical "we are thrilled to be having our picture taken" smiles!



Back on the road again

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.  --Jack Kerouac

Left San Antonio early this morning and made the long drive to Canton, Mississippi.  It took me SEVEN hours to get out of the state of Texas! Only took about 2 to cross Louisiana.  No sight seeing today or pictures of any kind.  I crossed the Mississippi River at Vicksburg and had planned to stop at the Vicksburg National Military Park where between May 18 and July 4, 1863, 19,233 men died in a battle that would split the South and give the control of the Mississippi River to the North.  However, when I came to the exit to go out to the Park, I found I couldn't do it.  I have spent a week enjoying the splendor of Mother Nature's best. I couldn't stomach standing on a battlefield where we did our worst. 

I'm spending the night in the Holiday Inn Express in Canton.  I chose it out of all the hotels on this street because it was the only one located next door to a restaurant (The Western Sizzlin) where super sizing it wasn't an option.  I've enjoyed many wonderful meals this trip thanks to the information on http://www.roadfood.com/ (a web site provided to me by my friend Amanda) and have yet to review them for you.  I'll get to them later but tonight I will give you a review of Western Sizzlin:

• I have never in my entire life been afraid of a salad bar. Most salad bars have vegetables namely salad type vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes to name a few along with other tasty toppings like shredded cheese, bacon bits and crutons.  The 'salad' I had consisted of what I believe to have been lettuce, tomato looking things and a white dressing that could have been Ranch or Bleu Cheese or cottage cheese or curdled milk...
• I hope that baked potato was from Iowa or Maine and not Idaho.  If it was from Idaho, I hope they never advertize it as being a Famous Idaho Potato.
• As for the steak or more appropriately 'steak' I wanted to stand up and scream "Ya'all need to go apologize to that cow's MAMA for doin' this horrible thing to her baby!".

Tomorrow I head for Memphis by way of Indianola and Clarksdale.  More pictures and stories tomorrow night. 

And finally a big thank you to my brother Thom and sister in law Laura for letting me stay with them this weekend.  I really enjoyed seeing you again.  I promise it won't be five years before I come back.  To my nephew David: next time, we will get even with that Hermit Crab.  And to Daniel: EGGGSS!!! You need EEEGGSSS to make an omlete!!  Love you both, good night. 

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Disclaimer for the Parental Units: Your children are okay.  There were no bumps, bruises, spills, scrapes, blood loss or bone breakage of any kind today.  I will not however make any promises about tomorrow.

 
 
One of the things on my To Do list is to learn to ride a motorcycle.  Today I got to semi cross that one off.  My Favorite Brother took me over to Retama Track Parking Lot School of Motorcycle Riding and taught me to ride his bike.  The bike is a Suzuki M109R with an 1800cc engine weighing 750 pounds.  I'm 5'2" tall and weigh 131 pounds.  The tips of my toes barely touch the ground when I straddle the bike.  When it is off the kickstand, I can barely hold it up and cannot move it.  But ride it I did.  Thom sat on the back and provided the legs necessary to control the bike when I stopped and help keep me from dumping it over on it's side. I managed to shift from first to second and back as well as stop and get going again (the stopping part requiring Thom's help with balancing) and I didn't stall out either.  Thom did not scream or cry the entire time nor did he get off the bike and kiss the ground when I finally stopped the bike and turn it off.  Based on that I would say I was okay at it.  I'm for sure not ready for prime time and that bike is NOT a starter bike.  I think for further practice, something a wee bit smaller would be a good idea.  It was a major confidence booster though to start with something this big and be able to 'drive' it even if it did require training wheels.  And I did LOVE the way it felt to ride. 


Biker chick



Parental Units: Please reread disclaimer from above before you continue reading.

 
When we switched drivers to leave the parking lot, Thom made me hang on tight and he took off across the parking lot at 60 mph.  TOTALLY AWESOME EXPERIENCE!!  Thanks Thom, you were a great teacher. 

Bat Flight!

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.  --John Berryman

Ever been stuck in one of those classes where the oh so perky instructor (that you are about 5 seconds from bitch slapping into next week) asks you the supposidly self revealing question "If you could be any kind of animal, what would you be?"  Every one always answers with lion or tiger or wolf or something equally cool and strong.  Notice how no one ever pipes up and says "gee, I LOVE to be a weasel" or "A bunny would be cool!"?  That's 'cuz we're all lying through our teeth and just trying to get through to the next break.  And we don't want to be mercilessly mocked by our co workers for the rest of our lives. My answer is I want to be a bat.  The hours seem good.  Sleep all day, fly around and eat all night.  Lay on a beach drinking margharitas in Mexico all winter.  Got to admit, it sounds pretty appealing doesn't it?  Tonight I got a glimpse into the wonderful world of bats.  I'm at Carlsbad Caverns where about 700,000 Mexican Free-tailed bats are registered voters.  At dusk, they depart their cave in a pretty spectacular display and if you stay for the Bat Flight program, you get to watch.  It was a cool experience.  First you are watching ~40 cave swallows fly around and then in a group they dive into the cave.  A few minutes later, you see what looks like a black whirlwind coming up from the mouth of the cave.  It swirls around for a while then a group of bats splits off and heads southeast looking for dinner.  The swirling continues with a group of bats breaking off and heading out every minute or so.  I have to say, it was a bit like watching the morning commute in Seattle.   Things start out a bit slow, smaller groups of early rising bats heading off to the office, trying to beat rush hour traffic.  Then traffic on the batway builds and larger groups of bats depart in long streams.  More bats  leave and the batway starts to back up a bit, bats start to jockey for the best position, switching lanes, speeding up, slowing down.  There's a couple of near misses and a bit of bat rage when one bat cuts another off.  The bats are actually quite skilled at merging which is more than you can say for most of the commuters merging from 405 N onto 520 E in the morning. After the main swarm is out, you get the later starting Microsoft bats headed out to work along with the parent bats dropping the pups off at school or daycare before heading out.  Bringing up the rear are the unemployed bats, the bats who overslept and the Mercer Island Housewife bats off to shop and do lunch.  It takes about 30 minutes for the bats to exit the cave and it is a sight to see.  Unfortunately, no photography is allowed while it occurs so I don't have any pictures. If you ever go to Carlsbad between June and October, stay for the evening Bat Flight program.  It's worth waiting for.

I spend 2 hours wandering around in the Big Room of Carlsbad Caverns. As with Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon, this is an experience that words fail at. Here are a few of the pictures I took in the cavern.  I opted to not use flash but went with long exposure so this is how it looks when you are down there.

I'm headed to San Antonio, TX tomorrow to spend the weekend with my Other Favorite Brother Thom.  I'll be resuming my trip on Monday morning when I head to Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Gettin' my kicks on Route 66

Have you ever noticed how anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac?  --George Carlin


I arrived in Williams, AZ yesterday afternoon. The hotel I stayed in is the historic Grand Canyon Hotel right on old Route 66. The hotel is the oldest in the state of AZ established in 1891. It has also been the best hotel I've stayed in so far. You can see more detail at www.thegrandcanyonhotel.com. It was inexpensive, super clean and just plain fun to stay in.

The Grand Canyon Hotel

My Room

All the rooms had themes. Mine was Michigan.

Further down the highway:
Standin' on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona.....
 

And then I hit the Mother Load of Route 66 tacky.  This place had it ALL:

It had Dinosaurs!

The requisit Buffalo statue

Teepees!

Totem Poles!

More teepees!

And more dinosaurs!

The trading post was full of souveniers for the most discerning tourists (plastic dinosaurs, moccasins, tons of silver and tourquoise jewelry etc).  The only thing it didn't have was the petting zoo.  It was supposed to have ostriches that you could feed but they were not there. I won't be returning.
 
I made it to Santa Fe in time to get a bit of a drive through the historic section of town.  It is beautiful and I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner.  Would have liked to spend a few hours walking around the plaza.  Tomorrow I'm headed for Carlsbad Caverns for Bat Flight.  Be passing through Roswell.  Maybe I'll see some aliens. 

Seeing both sides of the Issue

I REALLY need a wide angle lens.  -Me

Today I viewed the Grand Canyon from both the North and South Rims.  All I can say is WOW!  I didn't take many pictures because unlike Zion and Bryce, the Grand Canyon isn't so much about a single peak or interesting formation.  It is MILES of stunning canyons that stretch forever. Without a wide angle lens for my camera, I couldn't capture the true beauty of it.  Not that I didn't try but they don't really do it justice.  It is a 200 mile drive from the North Rim to the South Rim and I had the pleasure of getting to see about 160 miles of absolutely stunning red canyon walls all the way there.  About 40 miles from Jacob Lake where I spent the night is Vermillion Cliffs and Cliff Dwellers.  These brillient red cliffs were just as incredible as the ones I saw in the Grand Canyon.  I crossed the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry and got a glimpse of what the river has done there.  Even the smallest creek here leaves a gorgeous, deep canyon of beautiful layers.  To give you an idea of the size, that plexiglass viewing platform is 230 miles WEST of the South Rim Visitor Center.  230 MILES of one canyon!  Needless to say, I didn't drive there.  I'll catch that when I go to Vegas.

Again, I will shut up now and hope that the pictures here can even begin to convey how incredible the Canyon is.

North Rim:
These pictures were taken off of Bright Angel Point.  The bluish haze is not the result of me being a lousy photographer (I'm at least marginal) but is really there.  I don't know what it is caused by but it was rather disappointing to not be able to see the canyon as crisp and clear as I could Bryce and Zion. I noticed this same thing as I drove around to the South Rim. 

Now for the South Rim:
All pictures were taken from Mather Point.  I didn't spend as much time here as I had planned to.  Between the construction going on and the HUGE number of tourists milling about in their rheir incredibly inappropriate footware, it was tough to get around.  I think I liked the North Rim better and would like to return there another time and do the trail ride to the bottom.  South Rim has just too many peeps for me.

Today's additions to the wildlife collection are:

Bit hard to see but this is a calf nursing

I'm in Williams, AZ now staying in the Grand Canyon Hotel on historic Route 66.  Tomorrow I head East driving on as much of the Mother road as I can find.  Based on what I saw today walking around Williams, it's going to be as wonderfully tacky as I hoped it would be.  See you tomorrow night in Santa Fe!