Day 1 - New Orleans to Memphis

Yesterday - Thursday - my roommate Robin and I left for destinations north. Our goal was to leave home around 10am, but like it always happens on a trip, we left a little later. We grabbed a nice wholesome, nutritious lunch from Popeye's to get us on our way, and we were off.

We made it through Louisiana pretty quickly. Instead of taking I-55N to I-20W through Jackson, we decided to take a side cutoff to get to Vicksburg. Little did we know that we actually ended up taking the same route that Ulysses S. Grant took on his way to stomp the hell out of Vicksburg. Anyway. On our drive down the side roads (through Utica, MS if you're keeping score at home) we actually drove past an unfenced yard where someone had a horse out front - ON A LEASH, tied to a tree. Call me a city girl, but this was some funny shit. We were driving too fast to snap a photo, but trust me. It was hilarious.

We got to Vicksburg around 3pm, and after watching a movie about the military campaign that was made in approximately 1847, we decided to take the driving tour. That's when we realized why you never really hear about "the battle of Vicksburg." It wasn't one nice, neat, easy-to-drive little self-contained battle. It was like 4 months of marching around the damn Mississippi countryside, trying to take control of the Mississippi River and starve the Confederates out of town. And I swear the driving tour took as long as the siege. Damn, it was long. By the way, has anyone ever noticed that pretty much all Billy T. Sherman did was burn shit down? Atlanta? Check. Jackson? Check. My goodness. Could the man actually fight? We left Vicksburg around 7pm, and headed towards Memphis, TN.

On the way to Memphis, we came across a sign for the world's only cactus plantation ("now with daylilies!"), so we decided to make a detour. We thought we'd see rows and rows of cactuses, planted like firs at a Christmas tree farm. We didn't see anything, though. Just a few sad random cactuses outside of the boundaries of the locked gate. And soem really cool looking cactus fungus.

A little while later, we drove past what is easily the largest building I have ever seen. I believe it was the Nissan factory. Regardless, the building was at least a mile long. INSANE.

And then, while talking to a student (hi Tyran!) on the phone, I realized that I had something that shouldn't be there on my arm. Closer inspection revealed the intruder to be a tick. EFFING. GROSS. Luckily, it hadn't really been there for long, so it was tiny. Robin and I stopped in a gas station bathroom, pulled out her tweezers, and pulled the little sonbitch of by the head. It pulled some of my skin off with it, which is good - it means I won't die shit-raving mad of Lyme disease. Hooray! Anyway, we checked for more ticks (Steve, do we really have to go hiking? Ticks are gross), found none, and then headed on our way.

We pulled in the Econolodge near the Memphis airport around midnight. After pulling photos off my camera and peeing in the smallest bathroom ever, I went to bed. Hooray, Tennessee!

TRIP TRIVIA
Funny town names encountered: 2 (Hot Coffee, MS and Flippin, AR)
Total states visited today: 3
Total states visited, whole trip: 3
New states visited today: 0
New states visited, whole trip: 0