I’m thinking I have been moseying along to slowly. Every day I check the distance to Fort Lauderdale, and every day it seems like it hasn’t gotten any less. I figure I better pick up the pace and do a 400-mile day.
Google does the route, and the fastest way is to run the
Interstate, and go through 4 major cities. Little Rock. Memphis, Jackson, and
finally Birmingham Alabama, where I have a camp site reserved in South
Birmingham.
The first city Little Rock is not too bad. There is some
construction, some rough road, but traffic kept moving and I was on the other
side of town in no time.
Memphis had major highway construction, and they had set up
concrete barriers that narrowed the lanes down to the minimums. Memphis was the
most stressful crossing.
Crossing Mississippi,
I wasn’t stopping. Even though it, is the first state anyone learned to spell
in school. Its letters cadence just roll off your tongue. It is also the state that is ranked worst
state to live in. It ranks worst for poverty. It ranks almost worst for quality
of life, and it is the model state for where Alaskan’s fascist republicans
would like to bring us down to.
It was gas and go, and in Jackson the highway construction
wasn’t as bad as Memphis, but I didn’t care I was just passing through.
Birmingham was another story with super freeways, and some major construction. The lanes were not as narrow as Memphis, but traffic slowed to a crawl, and they sped up to Mach 5. I was focused on finding South Birmingham, which surprising enough is just south of Birmingham.
The campground was easy enough to find, and right after check
in a skinny little flat chested girl with Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses led me to
my site in her golf cart.
I backed in as it was a back in site, and instantly I knew
the sewer wasn’t going to work because it was uphill from my drain. And as
everyone that has worked for a utility company, or probably most ever place
knows. “Shit Runs Down Hill”
Well, no worries my tanks were dry as I emptied them at a
trump shrine back in Memphis. (I didn’t but wouldn’t that be appropriate?”
The electric was good, and so was the water. I got the AC
going right away. Once inside I really noticed that this site was downhill. It
was downhill so much I could roll out of bed, before I was ready, and being
level is where it is at.
Remembering back up the road in Hot Springs Dakota. The
fellow in the golf cart that led me to my site said that they have the levelist sites in the black hills, and would I like some blocks. I said that would be
nice, and he drove off in his cart and promptly returned with some 4X8 planks
that had been cut, and screwed together to form a three step up for a RV. He
placed one under my right front tire and I grabbed the other out of the cart.
He took the block assembly from me and placed it under my left tire. And then
once I got in the driver seat, he guided me up all three steps. I was level. I
thanked him and he drove off in his cart. Should I tipped him? Do you tip
people in golf carts? Or if they ain’t wearing hemits, don’t tip em.
Back in South Birmingham I thought I would just go up to the
office and inquire about any blocks being available. The nice fellow at check in didn’t know about
blocks but he went behind locked doors to ask the Aviator sunglasses women it
they had any.
She said they did, and as soon as she finished her fazebook
post she came right out and flipped on those ray bans, and led me to a locked
door, that she opened, fumbled around in the room for a bit and emerged with four
blocks with ropes through them for carrying. she handed them to me, and I
really thought of saying, are you not going to to drive those over in your golf
cart? But I didn’t. I packed the blocks back to the site, placed them a head of
the tires and rolled up on them, for a nice level night.
In the morning I rolled off the blocks and headed for a easy day of bike roads. My destination was Plains Georgia. On another trip I had passed by Plains not knowing it was on the same road as me, but today I was going to check out the Carter Center.
The Carter Center is in the former Plains school. The same school Jimmy & Rosalynn attended as children. The building has been expertly restored and the site is managed by The National Park Service.
The first part of the exhibits are of the school, which back
in the day was segregated. African Americans had their own not as good school, and without as many books.
Jimmy Carter was no segregationist, and if you remember he beat
george wallace in the primary for the Democratic nomination for president.
I only remember that because the second part of the exhibits are about Jimmy and Rosalynn white house years, and their lives in Plains before and after the presidency. I voted for Carter both times, and still think we would have been better off with a Carter second term than reagan ever. But whether you supported him or not, both Carters have proven themselves to be extraordinary humans. I half expected to see them out in the sun pounding nails for habitat for humanity. They weren’t but were probably saving their strength for the weekend celebrations of the Peanut Festival.
Great travelogue and the Styrofoam cup comment cracked me up. In a sick, environmentalist kind of way.
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