Fort Smith AR – Lebanon TN
Up early and hit the road by 6.00 am. Sort of magical to backtrack the path I’d taken the night before and now see it in the daylight. There was a mist in the air, I was definitely in the land of big rivers.
Today was the first day since leaving the West Coast that I saw clouds in any concentration, I don’t know the prevalent weather systems but maybe I’d moved out of a westerly air flow and was getting into a more Southerly Gulf influenced weather system.
The land is now arable rather than grazing land, there are hills, rivers and lakes. Radio stations are now more varied than Western and Christian, there is Rock, Classic, Hip Hop, and NPR.
I stop in Memphis to walk along the banks of the Mississippi River and share some words with Mark Twain, but it’s a fully grown city and getting to the rivers edge is next to impossible. Oh well, next time Mark.
I’ve overcome my limited internet access by calling my wife Rosy and asking her to look things up for me on her computer at home and then relay the information to me. State Parks near Nashville TN. Coffee shops with internet connection in Lebanon TN. Never mind, my AT&T phone has started to show signs of an imminent death, I think I see an iPhone in my future.
Pull into Cedars of Lebanon State Park. I know what day it is now, but I’m still confused by the time zones, am I two or three hours later than PST? Does it matter?
Nice little park. People actually tent camp here, I love it. Texas was definitely the 5th wheel and large trailer crowed with full kitchen, pop outs, and AC. Here in Tennessee people don’t mind getting dirty and sweating a little bit.
Do you think the early settlers had similar conversations? Those people in Conestoga Wagons are a bunch of wimps in comparison to us people on horseback ????
The people are different here. Along the route people have just come up to me and said “What the heck is that?” and then demanded a tour of the Teardrop. Here they look, wave and don’t say much. It’s dark now and I have the LED lights on over the wheel wells. Families are heading to the bathroom to take their showers and I hear them say “Wow, that’s cool”. They are right; it’s cool.
Wow, small world. My wife and I went to school in Middle TN, located in Murfreesboro TN. We used to camp and jeep in Cedars. When I was there in 2001, they were closing all the jeep trails and it was up in the air if the park would remain open with budget cuts. Lots of good memories with my young wife and 79 CJ5:) Hope you enjoy the area, we loved Nashville.