On the Road to a New Home

Part I

Paparazzi enjoyed fake freedom with his head out
the window while safely strapped in.

Monday John and I made the long (11 hour) haul to Memphis in our first day of driving, and we spent the next day exploring the city. I expected it to feel bigger, but in reality it isn’t much beyond the size of Austin. Probably the best thing we did was visit Sun Studio, a place established by a white man who loved the blues and recorded greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was very sweet.

We had a dinner of seafood gumbo, chili, Cajun BBQ shrimp, fried fish and ribs at a place called Blues City Café on Beale Street, where the music scene is rocking. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting soul food in Tennessee, but black culture is especially strong in Memphis.

John checks out the menu at Blues
City Café, where we had dinner Tuesday.

The Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum really explored the blend of white and black culture in Memphis music, explaining how white sharecroppers worked side-by-side with black sharecroppers in the cotton fields, feeding off each other’s music. Primarily, the way things went was white guys picked up black trends in music. At Sun, I learned that the original version of Hound Dog (Elvis: “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog…”) was sung by a woman, which – when you think about it for two seconds – makes far more sense. Another artist came back with an answer song called “Bear cat woman,” but was sued over it since it sounds just like Hound Dog.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day despite an 80% chance of rain predicted the day before and the same was true on our drive on to Grandpa’s house outside of Knoxville, Tenn.

Paparazzi enjoyed being outside for a while at Grandpa’s a little too much; he bolted when I let him in the backyard without the leash and I had to run after him across many a backyard and a street. As usual, I caught him because nature called and he couldn’t fight it. I write this as he sits panting behind me in the back seat, and I know it’s truly no wonder he ended up in a shelter; every time he runs I feel bad for whatever family lost him last.

Manny and Paparazzi scrambled for
Grandpa's attention Wednesday.

The weather has been beautiful and the driving is much more interesting than in Texas. We’ll be camping in Shenandoah National Park through Saturday, when we’ll get to Harrisburg and into my new place for the first time!

Part II

I didn’t have a chance to throw up the previous blog because there wasn’t Internet access at the park. When we got there, we found out we’d have to drive about another hour and a half to two hours into the park and fortunately made most of it in the remaining daylight.

We stopped for dinner at one of the many beautiful overlooks and dodged at least a dozen deer on the final stretch into camp. We set up camp in the dark and climbed into our sleeping bags without the rain fly, which meant we could look at the stars since John’s tent is all mesh covering. Unfortunately, that also meant I got pretty cold, so I woke up in the middle of the night to don a couple sweatshirts and extra pants and socks.

These two kicked my butt on the trail!

The next day, we headed out for a four mile hike after breakfast. Now, four miles in Austin is not the same thing as four miles in Virginia. It was up and down hill – flat for only short stretches – and included a decent amount of climbing over rocks, which Paparazzi made look easy, even in his booties (stickers got stuck in his paws when hiking in Texas so we got these to protect him this time around).

It was exhausting, but really pretty and fun. By the end, even Paparazzi was laying down if we stopped for anything. I paid $1 for five minutes of hot water (no warning when time was running out), and we passed out back in the tent for a hard afternoon nap.

I woke up first and am proud to report that, for the first time ever, I made a camp fire all on my own! We had tried to make one before conking out, but when it started to sprinkle, decided to put it off. John woke up about 15 minutes later, after I already had some food cooking over the fire (I impressed the Eagle Scout!).

We got him the doggie booties because
his soft fur catches stickers and hurt his paws.

After a slow dinner of soup, scrambled eggs and bacon, John showed me his expert s’more making skills – apparently, the key to a finely toasted mallow is waiting for the fire to die down to the embers. We re-packed the bear box and went to sleep with the rain fly on for extra warmth that night since I’m cold natured.

Saturday was our shortest driving day of the trip at under four hours on the road, and my landlord left the key for me. With a few minor things to remedy, the place looks great, though I don't know what I'll do with so much space!  It's a true house - three bedrooms - and so much space downstairs. I can't wait to get to settling in and decorating to feel more at home.

I've already met one of my neighbors and she was super friendly. Her name's Leila and she welcomed me to the neighborhood with unprecedented warmth. It was really reassuring that I did chose the right neighborhood.

Monday is my first day of work and Dad will be here later this week to help unload the POD, which is coming Thursday. I can't wait to get my stuff in here because now we're basically camping indoors. Look for more updates in the coming week!