- I had never driven into Nashville from the north before. It's a fairly big city, but you'd never know it coming in on I-65 until you were right on top of it. It's not until you're only about 10.5 miles out that the typical suburban sprawl shows up, as suddenly as if it had been turned on with a switch.
- You know you're in Texas by the names of things. Just across the line in Arkansas, you may pass Acme Pawn Shop, Bob's Transmissions, and Honest John's Used Cars, but go a few hundred yards west and everything is Lone Star Pawn, Longhorn Transmissions, and Big Tex's Used Cars.
- I realized with a shudder that I was driving through western Tennessee, Arkansas, and northeast Texas at a not-inconsiderable clip in a car with yankee plates. Just in case I got pulled over, I began scheming on ways to casually work a "How's your momma'n'em?" into the conversation to establish my bona fides. I still haven't come up with a satisfactory explanation to give a deputy as to how I wound up with a yankee's car, but I am assured by various friends with experience in the matter that almost nobody who gets pulled over claims to be driving their own car anyway.
- Driving through Arkansas yesterday, I realized that the last time I'd been down that highway, it had been with my friend Byron in his pick-'em-up truck, listening to his endless fund of entertaining stories. I'm glad I got a chance to do that.
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Well dang Tam, if I'd known you were headed into Nashville I would have offered to meet you for lunch, I'm only fifty some odd miles NW of there. If you'd like to shoot me a schedule at jsteve144c at gmail dot com, I'm going to be in Nashville Monday already, another trip's no biggie.
ReplyDeleteI THOUGHT I felt a great disturbance in The Snark yesterday.
ReplyDeleteStop in Memphis on the flop, and I'll buy you lunch, dinner, whatever.
I wouldn't worry about the Yankee thing, Nashville is about like the ATL, lousy with 'em.
ReplyDeleteA bit further south near Columbia (my birthin' place) is where my daddy used to plow mules; what is now known as Detroit South...which is to say giant empty auto plants (Saturn et al) surrounded by now-unemployed and very pissed-off Yankee industry transplants...that's progress.
Keep your ya'll handy for BillVille and the big TX though...
You passed through Nashville recently!? No wonder the streets were blocked with joyous crowds...next time, tell me when you are in town!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Texas!
ReplyDeleteI'll wave as you pass through the Panhandle (aka the "oh Lord is it really this flat and dull?" part of the state.)
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
In Texas, we are normally a friendly and welcoming sort, even if one does have yankee plates on one's car.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Jim Rawles, you were in Byron's pea cup.
ReplyDeleteJD
Bein' all sweet and southern also works with California plates in Idaho.
ReplyDelete... barely.
Glad to hear you're back in civilized country. :)
That's why I live north of Trashville--you'd never know it was so hideously close.
ReplyDeleteHell, I'd be happy if I could find a GPS with a "Avoid Ghetto" button. I swear the GPS in my Crackberry is trying to get me killed...
ReplyDeleteWV: endingre Lord Inglip has spoken! Ingre must die!
I've driven through Nashville twice, and each time it's a bit of a surprise when you realize that's what you're looking at. Maybe it just hasn't sprawled much . . . or just not to the north?
ReplyDeleteI drove for five months in TX with my, gad!, NJ plates when I first moved here and was job/domicile hunting. I did get the social finger once for no reason I know of but mostly, those with CA plates got the derision.
ReplyDeleteStaying in our country or just passing through?
If you pass through Clarkesville, AR, you might check in with Jerry Dean (sells black powder for shooters, PowderInc.com) and Susanne Warren-Bicio, makes parts for 16th and 17th century muzzleloaders, and does schools to help you build your own (HistoricalArmsmaker.com).
ReplyDeleteThat would be just touching in with another part of the shooting world.
Drive Careful out there. You cannot assume every driver is awake and sober.
I always seem to get the old LEO harry eyeball when I'm driving with Florida plates through Missouri... I've never figured that one out.
ReplyDeleteI had a Cherokee County, GA tag on my truck when I got pulled over in Tatum, Texas, back in '92. It didn't help. I had to wait by the side of the road while the pigs searched my truck. They found nothing because there was nothing to find. So they were honest pigs, at least. (One of them even assured me before they started that they would not plant anything!)
ReplyDeleteThe good part is that one of the pigs had fire ants bite the shit out of him while he was crawling under my truck.
Avoid Tatum, Texas, if you can.
P.s. They never broke out a citation pad.
P.p.s. Yes I am a cop-hater. Sorry, Matt.
I don't recall ever hearing "How's your momma'n'em" during the 3 or 4 years I lived in Texas. Might I suggest "Big Hat, No Cattle" as an alternate establisher of bona fides. The other, never fail phrase is "God Bless Texas".
ReplyDeleteThank you, Miss Tam, for finding the time to post while on your mission from God.
ReplyDeleteI miss the old cuss, too.
ReplyDeleteI saw a fellow at Gunsite that could have been his brother.