The eastern bits of Arkansas aren’t quite as stunning as the west. I did have time to meander, but I decided I’d rather spend my free time in Memphis than in the wilds of Arkansas. But half way to Memphis, traffic slowed to a crawl. Since I was going no more than 2 miles per hour, I decided to pull up Google maps on the phone and see if it would show how long the delay was. My lord in heaven, it was at least ten miles. Ten miles and 2 miles per hour? Oh hell, no!
I hopped off at the next exit, calculated a little detour on the GPS, and got onto a two-lane highway that ran parallel to the main interstate. I ran through a couple of sad little towns and one sort of major town that was also in pretty sad shape. It looks like times have been hard in this area for quite some time.
Not all of it was like that, there were some sprinkles of spiffy newness…but not many.
The only real bit of adventure the trip offered up was just at the point where I was about to get back onto the interstate. No more than a foot from either side of the highway was water…lots of water and the road itself was covered with dried mud. Clear evidence that the area had recently been underwater. I got a bit nervous when I noticed cars ahead were spraying water into the air. Uh Oh. Yeah, a short section of the highway was still underwater. With no shoulder and the water right there on both sides, there was no easy way to turn around. So after watching several cars brave the water, I decided to bite my lip and plunge in. It was pretty deep and my car is pretty small, but I hit it at a slow but firm speed hoping to push my way through quickly. At least if I stalled there were about a billion other cars right there lined up to take the plunge. But NotABug made it! And we went on our merry way to Memphis.
After all of the recent flooding, I expected to find Memphis in worse shape, but for the most part, Memphis is just fine and dandy! There’s still quite a bit of water in the fields on the Arkansas side of the river, but life seems relatively normal on the Tennessee side.
So it was the first night without a show. The doggie needed some attention, so after settling in at the hotel, we went for a walk and ‘wrasseled’ for a bit. When we got back the sun was starting to go down and the light was fantastic, so I grabbed my camera and decided to go for a walk. The University of Tennessee was right around the corner and I figured that was ripe territory for golden-hour photo opportunities.
So after about two blocks a homeless guy ambles up beside me, telling me how it’s a nice night and he quit smoking 15 years ago. The sun is glowing gold on regal architecture and I have a smelly guy dogging me…no way was I pulling my camera out. So I walked with him for another block while chatting about his upcoming trip to Mt. Rushmore. When we came up to the Office Max I’d spied a bit earlier, I gave him a pleasant wave and ducked into the store. I managed to get all the way back to the hotel before it was dark, but the time had passed for stunning light on old buildings. *sigh*
Thanks to crazy homeless guy, the only decent photo I got was taken from the balcony of my hotel room. It’s definitely the best sunset photo I’ve ever taken, but I’m still disappointed about homeless guy wrecking my photo buzz.
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