Day 2: to Hernando MS

[jesse_the_k]

Soundtrack for every free breakfast motel lobby ever: The Weather Channel. They now name their winter storms, presumably for higher entertainment values.

"MODoT advises all Missouri drivers to stay off the road until Sunday!" (When we actually enter MO, a digital sign advises, "WINTER WEATHER BEGINS TOMORROW, AVOID TRAVEL.")

Rend Lake IL offers the best roadside attraction of the morning: two water towers with dark green stems and round white tanks dotted with gray circles: yes there's a country club on their very large golf course.

Suddenly the sky changes from dull grey to dotted Swiss: several thousand geese, flying seemingly at random. After a mile, we're at the correct angle to appreciate fifty organized vees, aimed north. Already?

At noon the threats of ice storms are behind us. We roll the valleys to the Mississippi River. In the space of one minute the temp rises 20 degrees. In one hour we've dropped around 400 feet.

We're southbound to Memphis, past the magic spot where Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky & Mississippi meet. The last Illinois town is Cairo (rhymes with PAIR oh), where the Big Muddy's countless meanderings create an east-west section.

A very old bridge swoops us over the state line, while I admire a bright white boat pushing nine barges piled high with stuff secured by colorful tarps.

One industry that has not yet been gobbled up by a few multinationals is long-haul trucking. Two thirds of the traffic during weekday travel is semitrailers. We've passed trucks from at least forty companies, plus another fifty owner-operators. The latter have more beautiful paint jobs.

Short stop in New Madrid (rhymes with BAD hid), the often-forgotten nexus of the central US fault line. In our recorded history, three 7.5 magnitude quakes
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php
A twenty-minute stroll round the old town square, complete with ungraffitoed water tower, picnic area, community center illuminated by glass block, and skate park (sponsored by a Chevrolet dealer that's out of business). Adventure cut short by sandy colored loose dog who delivered a death stare at 100 yards.

Further south, pursued by hooting howling noises from tires on grooved pavement. Only rise in the landscape are the berms supporting the town-line roadways that span the Interstate every five miles.

We do the highway shuffle with a gray Pontiac Grand Prix. We pass, they pass, we pass, they pass. For a few miles, I'm sure its license plate reads "user dealer," although that seems unlikely. I finally get close enough to see "used dealer."

Yellow pillars flank the "Missouri welcomes you" pavilion northbound in the town of Hayti -- worth checking on the way home. Then the best town name so far: Braggadocio, MO!

Between 145p and 245p, we don't visit the Welcome Centers for Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

We finally arrive at the Hernando Days Inn. I entered, was struck by the age and shabbiness of my surroundings, and waited. Waited. Waited. Hollered "hello!" a bunch. After ten minutes I telephoned from inside the lobby and heard the phone ring out. Of course they'd already charged our card.

While MyGuy provides Bella with a little desperately welcome exercise, I manage to locate another hotel that met almost all our requirements. (Well, bathroom didn't have grab bars or handheld shower, but I can be dirty for one more day.)

We hit up the local Kroger grocery for deli case dinner in a hurry. I like touring grocery stores, where locals are more themselves. We slept there! We left!

Comments

[sasha_feather]

Sounds like a neat road trip!

[jesse_the_k]

So far pretty wonderful.

[killing_rose]

To be fair to MOdot, the roads started icing up without a single bit of precip from the skies, and it's been nasty since Friday morning. It is currently raining (though not yet icing, I live in hope that it won't) and I haven't felt weather this badly in my bones in weeks.

(To be incredibly "we aren't *technically* the South", the town started making preparations to shut down this weekend on *MONDAY*.)

I am glad that the road trip went mostly well!

[jesse_the_k]

Shit! ice without precipitation is evil indeed.

So sorry for your bones. May you have heating pads that never cool and someone to make you wooly warmers ... wait ,.. ;)