Remote control locomotives?

This is interesting...so much for the railroad engineer's union.

The Wild West....still

"John Wesley Hardin. The West's most feared gunman, killer of at least 26 men, was shot dead in the Acme Saloon on this site Aug 19, 1895.

Hardin was shot in the back of the head be El Paso Constable John Selman.

At Selman's trial a witness testified: 'If Hardin was shot in the eye it was excellent marksmanship. If he was shot in the back it was excellent judgement.'

Selman, out on bail a few months later was killed in a gunfight. "


Luckily(?), guns and ammunition are still easily obtained here.

Ok, maybe I've had enough of Texas.

Juarez, Mexico

El Paso was interesting. The city is pretty much a sprawling dump (well, at least what I saw of it), but you can walk to Mexico! It's literally just across a bridge. (The bridge essentially crosses over a moat that separates the US from Mexico)

For $.35 you can walk across the bridge from El Paso to Juarez, Mexico. Nobody checks any ID, nobody seems to care who you are...you can just head to Mexico. Coming back costs $.30. They asked for ID (my driver's license), if I'm a US citizen (yes), why I was in Mexico (I was in El Paso and wanted to walk across the boarder). Ok, have a nice day. Whatever. Cars seem to be pretty much the same drill.

Juarez is pretty run down...



But it does have beautiful scenery.

March 22 - San Antonio-->El Paso

The drive from San Antonio to El Paso is about 8 1/2 hours of NOTHING. One LONG, STRAIGHT, BORING road....

And the scenery doesn't even get interesting.

March 21 - San Antonio

This is the Riverwalk in San Antonio. I head here from Austin to visit Brian, who's been consulting for a company here for the last few weeks.

Here's Brian...still working in the hotel room after dinner...then he went back to the office until midnight. I kinda like not working. :)

Oh yeah...I AM still in Texas

Oh, yeah...for a short time, I forgot that I was in Texas. Austin is so normal to be in the middle of all this.

Barton Springs, Austin

This is Barton Springs. It's a three acre natural pool, fed from under ground springs. It's a bit chilly at an average 68 degrees year round...but certainly refreshing in the 80+ degree heat.
 

Sunset over Town Lake, Austin.

A beautiful sunset over Town Lake in Austin.  

A Thing

Ok, I've seen all kinds of crazy things in tow with motorhomes. But this is literally the only Thing I've seen. Not too many of them on the road anymore and this was in mint condition! 

Spring fever in Arkansas

The sign on the back of this Arkansas truck: "Spring time, ladies. Be a flirt. Lift your skirt or shirt. Flash a trucker. Just drive naked. Have a great day." Such a classy state. 

Ulm, Arkansas

Ulm, Arkansas...population: 205. That's creepy small.  

March 18 - Dinner in Stuttgart, Arkansas

Dave: "Good Evening."
Bartender (late 30's woman who looks like she's nearly 50): "Evening", looking me over "You're not from around here."
Dave: "Yeah, cause you know everyone around here, dont ya?"
Bartender: "Yup."
Dave: "So where, exactly am I?"
Bartender: "Stuttgart."
Dave: "Arkansas?"
Bartender: "You ARE lost...where ya from?"
Dave: "San Francisco"
Bartender: "Oh the fucked up state!"
Dave: [Well, if that's not the pot calling the kettle black! I am in ARKANSAS, right??] "Yeah, that's us."

March 18 - Austin-bound...

Ok, enough of the South. Time to get outta here and head towards Austin. That'll be a 2 day drive with an overnight likely in Texarkana. Instead of the interstates though, I'm going to take state highways through Mississippi and Arkansas. It'll be interesting to see...or not.

St Patrick's celebration

Luckily, St Patrick's Day is in full force at Bosco's Brewery. They have a tradition of having patrons manually tapping their kegs.

This is Monica attempting to tap a keg for them.

It took a few hits, but she managed to get the tap in...while spraying anyone within 8 feet.  

The Memphis police museum

The police museum proudly displays drug paraphernalia confiscated in busts...

...a good lesson for the tools of the trade. Now I know what I need to buy when I start the hobby.  

Downtown Memphis is interesting. They're in the middle of a big 'revival' of the downtown neighborhoods. Nearly all of the buildings in this section right off Beale Street are in some state of reconstruction. Just about every street level shop is closed or out of business. And yet, it's street that's closed to traffic (save the public transit trolley line) and a block from the waterfront...right where you'd expect prime property and bustling shops.

Beale Street seems unwilling to give up it's old charm...even after the rest of the buildings have come down, they're preserving the facades. Those scaffolds are permanent installations.  

March 17 - Memphis

This morning was interesting. I arrived in Memphis last night, crashed for the night, and as I was driving on I-40 towards downtown this morning, I was pulled over. For doing 70 in a 65! No mention was made of the SUV that blew in front of me easily doing 80. He had Tennessee license plates. Now mind you, I wasn't screwing around at all...in fact, if anything, I was a bit slower than rest of traffic as I was trying to pay attention to signs and get my bearings on where I was at. It gets better...

So the cops (in an unmarked, white Ford Explorer...what kind of highway patrol car is this??) pull me over and ask me to step out of the car and in front of their truck. Ok, so much for "license, registration and insurance, please".

They explain that they pulled me over for doing 70 in a 65 as I topped the crest of a hill.

"I understand that officers, and I'm sorry...but isn't that relatively within a reasonable margin of error given speedometer inaccuracies and hilly terrain?" That didn't go over well.

"Have you ever had a ticket?"

"Um, not in like 10 years...for a stop sign."

"Do you have any weapons or drugs on your person?" as they pat my pockets and my jacket.

"Nope."

"Where are you from? That your car? Where are you going? When did you get in town? How long are you staying here? What brings you here? Where did you come from. Where are you staying?"

I'm from California...yes, I own the car...I'm heading downtown to Beale Street (the tourist zone)...I just arrived last night...just staying for a day or two...I'm on a cross country road trip, just left Nashville and wanted to check out the music scene here in Memphis...I'm staying at some Interstate motel a few exits back"

The officers then proceed to escort me to the side of their truck and put me in the back seat. "Hmmm, this doesn't seem to be going well".

They get in the front seat and call in my license for any wants or warrants, and ask again if I'm transporting any drugs, cash or weapons. "No, officers" They then tell me they'd like to search my vehicle. Is that ok?

Alright, so I'm not a lawyer, but I watch enough Law & Order (way more than enough!) to know that they can't just search my shit without some sort of cause. And I don't believe that doing 70 in a 65 warrants a vehicle search. Now, technically, they ARE asking my permission to search it. Hmmm...does that make a difference? It's not like I particularly feel like I'm being given the choice to say 'No' at this point. Thoughts did conjure up of calling Kristina (a lawyer) right then and there, but I was really trying to not rock the boat for two cops who already had nightsticks up their asses about something. Besides, there's nothing to hide in the car except the fact that it's a complete mess from 3,500+ miles of driving over the last few weeks. Oh, and Cum Shot riding shotgun with me might take a little explaining.

So they proceed to search my car while I sit in the back seat of their police truck, and I'm just waiting for one of them to plant a bag of coke in the car so they can really give me a hard time (again, a bit too much TV).

Luckily, they returned seemed a bit diffused. "Well, your license is clean, and I don't see anything illegal in the car. So my policy is to leave well enough alone, and let you off with a warning. The speed limit here 65, and just around the next bend you'll see signs for 55. Keep it there.

"Yes officers, thank you. [Fuckers who wasted 40 minutes of my time and borderline illegally searched my car because you have nothing better to do on a Thursday morning]"

Turns out there's a police museum/annex station on Beale Street downtown. I happened in and asked one of the officers there about the experience, and he explained a few things.

* The guys who pulled me over were from a special drug detail...apparently Memphis is a MAJOR drug corridor, with I40 crossing the Mississippi right there, and I55 running North and South from New Orleans straight up to Chicago, So there's a lot of drug traffic through town and they're trying to crack down on it. There were a few recent high profile busts, and it's likely that those courriers rolled over provided info on others who'd be passing through. I probably met some of the profiling conditions...solo driver, in a nice car, relatively abiding by the speed limit (i.e. not speeding too much), and traveling 'cross country' was enough to trigger the caution flags.

* If they ASK if they can search the car, it's legal. (although, I maintain I really didn't feel as if I was being offered a choice). Apparently a lot of courriers think they've got stuff stashed well enough that they let officers search the cars (or feel like they don't have a choice), and the cops do dig up the stash. That's what happened just recently.

* If you refuse to allow them to search the car, they can detain you for a short period of time and bring out dogs. The dogs are allowed to sniff AROUND the car, and if they detect anything, the cops can then search the car.

* Generally, these guys don't bother issuing traffic citations. Technically, 70 is
speeding, but that's just the excuse they use to pull you over. ..they don't want to deal with the paperwork for traffic infractions. They're looking for big scores.

March 16

The weather here is just completely nasty. It's friggin' cold and wet. There's a storm crossing over that's supposed to last for another 36 ours or so. Weather forecast for Memphis is warmer and clear for tomorrow. I'm going to head there...

The Belle Meade Plantation

Arrived in Nashville safe and sound. But the weather's freakin' COLD! It's in the 30's and the forecast is calling for freezing rain for the next few days. Ugh, I definitely did not pack for this.

In an attempt to somewhat hide from the cold during the day, I head out for a tour of the Belle Meade Plantation - which has been 'christened' as the "Queen of Tennessee Planations" In its day, the Plantation consisted of 3,500 acres.

The Belle Meade's farming operations from the 1840's through the 1880's were said to be the most successful in the Mid-South for almost half a century. In addition, it's stable was recognized as the most famous nursery of thoroughbred racing stock West of the Appalachians.

Cool old carriages...



This is the view, from the porch above the front door. Not too shabby for a front lawn.


The house was equipped with some very interesting amenities. Heck, even NEW bathroom showers aren't this cool!

I'm sure I've seen benches like this in the past. In fact, it's likely my mother has purchased more than one of these antique caned benches over the years. Interestingly, they are not just pretty, caned benchs seat.

It's called a cooling bench. If/when someone died on the plantation, they wouldn't stop the work day to bury the body...nope, the work needed to continue. So they would lay the dead on the cooling bench and place tubs of ice below the bench and at the head and the feet.

The caning would enable the cooled air to vent through and keep body cool until they could attend to a proper burial. Yuck.

This is a prehistoric call box. Ok, not really prehistoric...actually pretty cool for it's time. Each room in the main house was wired with a buzzer. Outside the kitchen in the servant's room, was the call box the buzzers were all wired to. When someone would ring for assisance, the bell would sound, and a magnet would point the arror to the room number from which the call came. Then assistance would be sent to that room.

Now this is a serious brick shithouse! Actually, this is the house's smoke-house. They entertained so much at the Belle Mead that they would smoke over 20,000 pounds of pork alone per year. This smokehouse was jammed with smoked meats hanging from rafters inside.