road trip in a nutshell

Memphis was a pretty good time.  We were greeted by the same wet and cold weather that we had left behind in Western NC, but that's alright.  We made up for it in other ways.  Visiting, eating, laughing, eating, sightseeing.... and eating.

The last time I visited Western Tennessee was in the summer of 1999 on the road trip that Mike and I took across the country following our freshman year at Rutgers. (yep, we've been together that long)  That road trip started off terribly, with lost wallets and dead car batteries and a bit of a smash up of Mike's car once we arrived in TN.  (thankfully that trip turned around completely after that and was quite enjoyable aside from a few small incidents including a rather shady stay at a hostel in San Francisco and a ridiculously thorough search of our car at the Canadian border)  It wasn't really my grandfather's fault.  It was dark.  He wasn't used to another car being parked behind his in the driveway.  And it wasn't so bad, really.  We did not go out exploring though..... had some insurance jazz to take care of.

This time around, things went much more smoothly.  For starters, this was the first lengthy road trip (about 9 hours) in which this mama did zero car seat nursing.  That may sound a bit silly and insignificant to you, but for me, for us.... it was a big deal.  She did great.  A couple little meltdowns here and there, but I'd fuss too if I had to spend 9 hours staring at the back of a car.

When we pulled up (still daylight!) we were greeted by several family members and when that front door was opened and my nose took in those smells (the exact same as I remember!) I was flooded with memories of summers spent petting the horses out back, smelling the sweet horse feed, picking berries, fishing, eating breakfast in the little breakfast room and staying up late snacking and watching movies in the den.  Smells can really take you back, can't they?  I'm not saying the house smells like horses and fish, of course.... but it's all connected.

Our first full day there was spent at the Memphis Zoo.  It has come a long way since I was there 20 years ago, and while there are many lovely exhibits and it is obvious that they care about their animals and are trying to provide them with the best they can, I still have such mixed feelings about these places.  Of course the little roadside zoos and such have, in my opinion, no place and no excuse for what they do.  But the larger, more conservation minded zoos and nature centers?  I don't know.  I grew up just a mile or so away from Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida and I remember how much I loved going and seeing the animals and it had a significant, positive impact on me.  I also remember going to other zoos and seeing animals in cages and crying.  Surely there is good work being done by some of these places, but at what cost?  Despite all of the upgrades being made to zoos these days and all of the extra space being given to the animals at many of them, I wonder if the best evolution that zoos could make would be to just stop existing.  Carefully selected rehabilitation and breeding programs aimed at conservation and increasing numbers in the wild, yes.  But zoos as they are today?  I don't know.

Alright, enough sad talk about captivity.

That night we enjoyed my grandfather's 80th birthday celebration.  What a wonderful, kind, and humble man he is.  He treated us all to a brief overview of his life, written ahead of time and read aloud by him.  We each got our own copy afterwards.  What a beautiful way to celebrate.  It was so, so lovely to be surrounded by so many family members that I don't see nearly enough, and Claire had a blast playing with everyone and staying up way too late.

We explored a bit over the weekend, visiting historic downtown Collierville and Memphis.  In Collierville, we walked around the old town square, peeked in some (permanently) parked trains and walked around the feed store looking at seeds and baby chicks.  In Memphis we walked down to the river, visited the ducks in the Peabody hotel, walked down Beale St. and around town a bit, tasted some Memphis BBQ, and waited 45 minutes for a to-go order of 3 pieces of chicken from a hole in the wall that claims to serve the world's best fried chicken.  It was pretty damn tasty.  I tried not to think about Pearl and Mabel.

On Monday morning the weather broke and the sun showed itself just in time for us to pile in the car and head home.  Oh well, at least it was a nice day for a drive.  And again, no nursing en route.  What a difference that makes!  On a similar note, at a rest stop between Nashville and Knoxville we watched 2 dogs nurse their litters of puppies.  These were 2 dogs belonging to different people, and both were medium sized black and white dogs.  What's the chance of that happening?  The first was a rescued pit bull being taken to a farm near Nashville with her pups.  Her pups who were all piled cozily in a wicker basket.  That's right.  We stumbled upon a basket overflowing with adorable puppies who we watched nurse and then played with.  Claire was pretty excited.  As was I.

And then we were home.  Fig trees still alive in the back room, one dog, one cat, two hens.... check, check, check.  Claire of course had to take a good look around and play with some of her things and look through her books, and then we piled into bed and snoozed a good long (and uninterrupted as far as I can recall) snooze for the first time in about a year.

I didn't have much motivation to write for a few days, so I stayed in my pjs and watched the rain and napped with Claire and mostly did a whole lot of nothing.

I think I'm ready to write a bit again.  Or at the very least, to report on our goings on in a somewhat timely fashion.

cheers,
A