Life since Louisiana

One word: whirlwind.

More words:

Leaving Louisiana, a place I came very quickly to love almost a year before, was very, very hard, so I made an adventure of it. I decided to visit a few of the towns mentioned in O Brother Where Art Thou, one of my favorite movies. I visited Yazoo City and Itta Bena on my way to staying with a friend in Nashville for my first night.


WE'RE FROM THE SAME SOIL, Yazoo City, MS


Self explanatory, Itta Bena, MS

Before I got to Yazoo City, I passed a sign for the Mississippi Petrified Forest, which I'd been meaning to get to. I think petrified wood is cool, and it was also about time to stretch my legs.

The private park is small, and the only trail was about a half mile loop. As I walked it and stared at the different pieces of petrified wood, I contemplated the cosmos, as one does. (Warning, geography vocabulary blitz ahead--)

I noticed right away that the petrified wood in Mississippi looks very different from that in Arizona, like my ring. In Arizona, it's very colorful, and in Mississippi, it's very plain. I thought about the environmental differences that caused these appearances.

The petrified wood in Mississippi is believed to be driftwood from further north in North America. I thought about how the trees, probably spruce and maple, grew in the local soils, fell for whatever reason, and traveled down prehistoric ephemeral streams to central-ish Mississippi, where water high in mineral content passed them over and replaced biological matter with stone, slowly but surely. I thought about the loess bluffs, created by wind blown sediments. I thought about the erosion process that revealed the petrified wood. I thought about the process by which stone breaks down into soil over many, many years, first as saprolite and later as the fine grains that form different kinds of soils. I wondered about the different between a rock eroding into soil and petrified wood eroding back into the earth. Are they different processes? I thought about the movement of minerals from up north to this region, how the original trees in question carried all of these things and changed the environment, and were changed by the environment...


petrified wood in Mississippi


eroded sandy bluff in Mississippi Petrified Forest

and I felt very small, but in a cozy sort of way. Like, ultimately, we're all part of this earth, and we move and change things around, but we're still part of it, and maybe that's part of the reason that I feel so connected to the environment and want to work to care for it.

...

I drove from Mississippi to Tennessee through Alabama via the Natchez Trace Parkway. I stayed with a friend in Nasvhille. The second day, I drove to Kentucky and stayed with my cousin and her wonderful family, who served as bookends to my mission year by hosting me both going to and coming from Louisiana.

I drove through southern West Virginia, passing over the New River Gorge. I spent a few days in Virginia, where Mike met me. We found an apartment and set up all of the electric, gas, cable, internet, etc. and drove back to New Jersey.



It's been a little crazy since I got back. Day one: soil survey up north. Day two: made 15 lbs of potato salad. Day three: went to the beach, and hosted a big family party (hence the potato salad).


Pequest Wildlife Management Area


the consonants in the ocean, South Seaside Park

Did I mention crazy? Grandma has been in the hospital all week (is doing much better now). I had a meltdown over a bit of a dental crisis (threatened a root canal, but so far seem to be surviving with just having a tooth ground down to alleviate some nerve inflammation and sensitivity issues). Mike is getting a new transmission in his car (thankfully THANKFULLY thankfully just barely under warranty). 

And now, in a few hours, I drive to Richmond, my new home.

New Jersey will always be home, but I'm excited about the adventures ahead in Virginia. Things are a little crazy (I may have mentioned)-- Mike and I will both have two moves under our belts this summer, plus new jobs, plus oh, getting married soon.

I vacuumed out my car today and thought, now I just need to get to the beach and get some sand in here. But I buckled in the Lorax, as ever, knowing I'd be back soon enough to accomplish that. Next weekend, actually, for a good friend's wedding.


We have a long enough lease that the dust might actually settle.

I'm ready, dust settling or not.


The Lorax, buckled into my backseat as ever, ready to go, too.

Music City and another rather musical city

I guess I left off here, at which point we were heading back into Nashville to enjoy the evening music scene. Did we enjoy it? Oh yes we did!

Most of the music is located on Broadway. We had checked out some country music in the afternoon at a bar called The Stage. I'm not a huge fan of pop country but it was fun to be in the presence of live music and enjoy a decent beer (Yazoo Pale Ale) with my friends. We checked into the hotel to rest a while before heading back out for the evening, which was where I left off.

The biggest challenge was finding a place that would let us all in, as we did have one roadtrip team member who was under 21 (but of legal drinking age in his home country!). He knew better than to ignore that law, but the doormen still needed to follow it. We found a ribs place that didn't really seem to care who wandered in and enjoyed a pair of guitars while a few of us tried Yazoo Dos Perros Ale, a malty local brew.

After a while of cowboy music, we wandered around town in search of something different. As we walked past the BB King Blues Club, we slowed down to hear what was playing inside when the guy at the door said all ages. They even knocked the cover charge in half for us. We were sold. The music was phenomenal! I realize that there is more than one BB King Blues Club and that it's kinda touristy, but I didn't care. The music was so good. The house band, the BB King All Stars, were playing some mighty blues with a little bit of funk mixed in. We had an absolute blast, staying out quite a bit later than planned but not regretting it at all.

The next day we traveled to Memphis. Heading eastbound, there was an overturned tractor trailer, and the interstate was shut down in two entirely different places besides that. We certainly had some traveling mercies. We had lunch at a Waffle House in Horn Lake, Mississippi, mostly for the sake of crossing the border into MS, but also because we are all huge fans of Waffle House (this was our second one). Then, on to our afternoon plans-- I left Jozef, Timi and Michael at Graceland while Jakub, Maciej and I explored a few music shops and other places on our own. We went to a drum shop that Maciej, a percussionist, had been talking about nonstop, and quickly understood why. Never have I seen such a collection of percussion. There was a cymbal vault. There was also a collection of famous sets, most notably to me was Ringo Starr's from the Ed Sullivan show.

We later wandered around Sun Records and the Victorian district until our friends were done touring Elvis's estate. Together we parked at a visitors center on the Mississippi River closer to the downtown area and wandered around for a while, deciding where to spend our evening. The answer became clear: Beale Street. Late in the afternoon, police were already blocking off the avenue and awesome blues were coming out of every shop, restaurant and bar. We listened for a while before wandering down Main Street and eventually having a peanut butter and jelly picnic in Confederate Park, overlooking the sunset on the Mississippi.

Then we returned to Beale Street. Holy blues. So so good. I tried Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan beer (brewed in Memphis), which I expected to taste like pie but it was actually quite plain. Who cares. The music was anything but, and we could sit on a curb outside of a club and listen for free. We spent some time in this little plaza with a statue of W.C. Handy enjoying a great blues band there. I really enjoyed the tons of amazing live music.

Like I said, not so crazy about whiny cowboy music, so I think I liked Memphis more because I LOVE the blues. However, I really enjoyed both cities just for the fact that music was omnipresent. You could walk twenty feet and hear something totally different. So good.

Right, so my last post was abrupt and lacking details...

After Hurricane Irene, I was at camp without power, phones and occasionally water for a week. During that time I spent a great deal of time with the international staff who hadn't yet gone home. They talked me into a roadtrip they'd been planning. My bosses gave me the time off, so here I am, now 1000 miles into a 2600 sojourn around Kentucky. Seriously, that's about the only state we're not going to pass through in the next week and a half. Maciej (Poland), Jozef (Slovakia), Jakub (Czech Republic), Michael (England), Timi (Hungary) and I are on a pretty excellent adventure.

Day one, Tuesday 6 September: Arlington, VA/Washington, DC. Due to torrential downpour and a late start, we didn't arrive to the area till mid afternoon, at which point the rain held off long enough to wander the National Mall and all of the good monuments and memorials around it. We saw the White House and the Capitol. I love DC and it was a joy to show my friends around. We stayed with my friend Becky and her sweet baby boy Arlo.

Day two, Wednesday 7 September: After a walk through Arlington National Cemetery and spending some time in a few of the Smithsonian Museums, we drove to Harrisonburg via Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. It was a pretty overcast day so we spend a lot of time driving through clouds and wondering what the views looked like. Late in the drive we broke through and enjoyed some lovely vistas and an incredible sunset. We arrived in Harrisonburg in time to have dinner with our friend, Gordo, who was hosting us for the night, and really just spent the night hanging out in his apartment with his roommates and Brendan, another camp friend.

The tree of the day would have been this incredible Post Oak found near the Eternal Flame in Arlington Cemetery, but it was taken out by Hurricane Irene. Thankfully Becky and I visited it earlier in the summer.

Day three, Thursday 8 September: Long drive from Harrisonburg to Knoxville, Tennessee, via the Blue Ridge Parkway and Roanoke. We were hesitant to take the Blue Ridge Parkway because it was once again overcast, but we took the chance and were thrilled by the views. It was a very peaceful, winding drive. We stopped in Salem, VA at Roanoke College and had a lovely peanut butter and jelly picnic lunch with our friend Sarah Gillette. Beautiful little campus and a very pleasant stop before several more hours of driving.

Tree of the day: the American Basswood we ate lunch under.

We arrived in Knoxville and promptly enjoyed some Waffle House for dinner. It was really awesome trying to explain a southern drawl to my friends and then having some really great examples for them to hear. It was a really great dinner, and our waitress had some ideas as to what to do in downtown Knoxville. We ended up walking all over down, finding it to be pretty empty but nice. It was a beautiful evening.

Day four, Friday 9 September (in progress): This morning we drove to Nashville and walked all over the place. We started at a Visitors Center and walked up 5th Avenue past some beautiful churches and historic buildings. We spent some time in the Tennessee State Museum, which was mostly interesting to me because the Civil War was explained with a slightly different perspective than I was raised learning in the northeast. We walked up to the Capitol Building and then adventured along Broadway, which is dotted with music shops and restaurants and pubs with music being played. The music changed every 20 feet. We came to our hotel to rest for a while and are now heading back out to enjoy the music scene here in Music City...