We got away only slightly later than we had planned. I started as the driver and got us as far as Memphis. We pulled over and checked out the tourist and welcome center where there is a statue of Elvis and B.B. King. They also had karaoke with a live band going on across the river at Mud Island that we could hear. We walked along the shore of the Mississippi River for a few minutes and remembered the times that we had when we lived just south across the line in Mississippi. We also texted a picture to my sister and asked her to guess where we were...this later became a theme for the day.
Eventually, we got back in the car and continued east. Mom was behind the wheel at this point and remained the driver for the rest of the day. I was comfortable relinquishing the reins, so to speak. We drove on for another hour until I saw a sign for the Casey Jones Railroad Museum and tourist center and insisted we pull off, not because I wanted to go check out the museum, but I figured they would have a decent bathroom and, well, I really needed to use the facilities. We ended up going through the museum because it was free and sort of interesting. The museum is all about Casey Jones, conductor of legend who saved a train full of passengers from certain death in a train crash in 1900. I'm still not 100% certain about the whole story! but there is a song out there about it and he has a museum, so must be important. We did send another picture to my sister from this locale but she was flummoxed as to where we were and to be honest she was a little more concerned with watching college football, specifically the TCU Horned Frogs.
Mom and I considered having some lunch at the restaurant there at the museum, however, upon seeing the food (sorta cafeteria/buffet style) I knew that it wasn't anything that I could stomach. They were serving good ol' home style Southern cooking (e.g., collard greens, black-eyed peas, hominy, fat back, pickled pigs feet...okay maybe that us going a little far, but you get the idea) and that is just not something my palette has ever appreciated. So, we opted for a scoop of ice cream and headed on our way.
The next stop we made was at a rest stop just West of Nashville because for some reason today my bladder was on full output. And we got so tickled that mom almost killed us...okay, not really but we were laughing pretty hard at something that I'm pretty certain nobody else would find it quite as hilarious....building those memories.
It was about this time that I'm looking at the atlas, because that is what the navigator is supposed to do, and I'm trying to find something. Mom looks over at the map as if she is trying to read it while driving. I calmly close the atlas and state "Here's the thing, we have to have a rule that the person in the driver's seat is not allowed to read the map as their job is to actually drive." This became the most recent thing thst got us laughing and now whenever we need to set a rule, we have to start with "Here's the thing... There will be no yelling at one another in the car" or "Here's the thing... If you need to go to the bathroom, state it calmly and with enough advance notice so that the driver can safely navigate off the highway to a clean, well lit location".
We got stopped in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic just north of Nashville and managed to go all of 1.8 miles in about 30 minutes. Luckily, mom was driving and she managed the situation with a much calmer attitude than I ever would have had. And once the traffic cleared it was clear sailing, so to speak, into Kentucky, where we pulled into the state information area to 1. Use the facilities, again and 2. Take another "guess where we are picture" to send to my sister.
Shortly there after we arrived in Bowling Green where we checked into our hotel and walked across the street to a less than stellar dinner at another chain restaurant. I wrapped up the day by walking the halls to get my 10,000 steps in for the day and learning that my Aggies managed to come out ahead of the Razorbacks and the Horned Frogs whomped up hard on the SMU Mustangs.
Tomorrow we have another semi long day of driving ahead where we finally arrive at the location for our quilting workshop.
