On The Road to Memphis

We continued to drive towards Memphis (did you ever notice how Memphis and Philadelphia use the ‘PH’ as an ‘F’ sound, I wonder why?) and saw another interesting sign for Mammoth Cave National Park. We both have the Senior card, though only one is needed per car for free entry, and we are on a road trip after all, so why not. After passing the myriad of entrepreneur establishments with geodes, rocks and fake dinosaurs we enterd the well manicured National park. Wild turkeys roamed free along the roadside and, as we later learned, they had become extinct in the park but were quite successfully re-introduced to the park. Arriving at the visitor center we took the obligatory picture at the National Park sign then viewed the schedule and types of tours. Most were one and a half hours to four hours but there was also a half hour tour listed on the tour description board but nowhere on the list of times schedule. We asked a friendly ranger who gave an excellent description of all the tours, save the half hour one. Our loss, we needed to be in Memphis for dinner.Back on the road it was. Verizon GPS was not functioning so we were relying on the ‘old school’ Garmin, with its original five year old maps. I say this because if a road were constructed after these maps were made, then they do not exist as far as Garmin is concerned. The Park Service had constructed some new exits, unknown to our GPS. We took them successfully anyway.Traveling through the south on I routes is beautiful. The scenery, construction, signage, etc. Maybe we saw a sheriff or two but when you travel speed limit, you’re okay. We arrived in Memphis about an hour early. The CB radio was not working properly. I suspected the wire in the plug was broken so we ventured forth to find a Radio Shak, which we did in a Mall, a rather large mall, with no empty store in it and four anchor stores. Memphis must be doing all right. Found the appropriate plug, just happened to be on sale for $7.99 from an original price of $8.79. What a deal, and yes, the CB works fine now.We arrived at my daughters, sister-in-laws shortly there after. A brief rest and off to dinner at a local BBQ place. You know those sleeves you put on that have tattoos on them? Our waiter had them in reverse, blank sleeves to cover his tattoos. He was extremely helpful and we all enjoyed a fine meal. Back to their home where we were able to watch both Bill Clinton’s nomination speech and Barack Obama’s acceptance before going to bed. All the kids had left for school by the time I shower, dressed and came down stairs. A brief visit then on the road to Shreveport.