Boot Heelin' it to Music City

 Last left you all in the fantastic Ozarks. This post will not contain many photos, I'm having some photo uploading angst but will have it resolved soon.

Wanted to post this to get you up to date on our whereabouts.

Upon leaving the Ozarks the beeline to N'ville brought us thru the bootheel (pronounced boothill by the locals) of Missouri (MO). If you check out a map of the State of MO you'll notice a rectangular shaped parcel of land in the southeast corner of the state jutting into the State of Arkansas (AR). It appears as if the State of MO has a boot heel on it's southeasterly extremity.

It looks very odd as the southerly border of MO runs as a straight east to west line except for this 50 square mile rectangular shape that pops southerly into what is now AR...hmmm.

 Apparently, back in the day, MO was a State and AR at the time was a Territory. There was a fellow in around the 1830's named John Walker who was a big time cotton grower in the boot and argued that the area should be part of the Union (MO) and not some fledgling Territory (AR). It was decided that the boothill would be part of the Union and to this day the boothill residents are referred to as "Arkansas Deniers"! I really love this kind of shit on the history of our Union!

Traveling thru the boothill we pass thru a small hamlet named Hayti (pronounced Hay-Tie), MO where an evening before Deb and I watched a Discovery ID murder mystery that occured here. Seems some poor bastard was bludgeoned to death by his ex wife's father and brother. Perps were nailed based on video surveillance cam footage from a convenience store in town. Now, this town is maybe 2 blocks long and as we're cruising thru I say to Deb...hey, there's the C store where the cam footage came from. I know, we are easily entertained, very sad but kinda fun at the same time. 

As we left the 2 block town we spy a Mexican restaurant next to the Interstate interchange and we pull in for a quick lunch. Now taking this all in amidst the truckers and oil company vehicles loitering about,  I'm skeptical about this prospect. But I gotta tell ya, I enjoyed the best plate of carnitas I've ever had, right here in the boothill of Missoura.

Crossed the mighty Mississippi River, ole man river, and found ourselves in our eighth State, Tennessee, the Volunteer State. Stayed the night at the rather funky Joy O RV Park in Jackson, TN...no joy, nuff said.

Pulled in to Music City and posted up at the Priest Reservoir a few miles outta town. I've noticed at a coupla locales the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), a Federal agency, has built and maintain the dam works creating the lake but turn over the lake and adjoining lands to a State agency. The State then builds boat landings, docks, picnic grounds and camping spots for management and operations. 

 Priest Reservoir fit the bill and was just such a spot. Beautiful campground a mere 20 minutes drive from d'town Nashville. Really enjoyed our stay here with live music on the Saturday nite with Waylon Jennings Outlaw Country music and a smattering of some old Allman Bros, Poco and Eagles tunes...a very fine evening.

Neighbors across the way from us were an Australian couple heading across the US in a bitchin VW camper. Parked next to multi million dollar rigs the Aussie responds to my good mornin' with a...'hey mate, I think we may be outta place here'. No problem man, you've got everything you need, have a great trip. Dude LOVED America! You ain't ever gonna be outta place in America with that attitude son.

Deb set an appointment for us to get our second Covid vaccines (Moderna) in N'ville at a public health clinic downtown. Showed up for our appointment and were told they only had the Pfizer....well, information we could have used a week ago, sheesh, talk about no joy. Prolly OK, place looked sketchy as hell, however it did look like a promising joint for a methadone fix, but out of respect I didn't inquire any further.

We spent 2 nites in N'ville, sampled the various things you can culinarily do with a chicken and moved on towards KY. We really enjoyed our time in Music City, a city that is really growing and definitely feeling the pains. I'm sure a lot of the long time residents of Nashville are concerned about the future growth of their town, building cranes are everywhere. Ain't small town Music City no more. Hank Williams wouldna' done it this way.

Currently posted up in Asheville, NC. At the start of this post I apologized that it would not contain many photos, just realized....NO photos. Apologies, hope to remedy soon, hopefully you got a good picture from the narrative.

Love you guys, take care,

Deb and Howard





Comments

  1. UnknownMay 29, 2021 at 6:58 AM

    My favorite post so far.

    "Dude LOVED America! You ain't ever gonna be outta place in America with that attitude son." HAHAHAHA nothing truer ever been spoke. Love you, Diesel!

    Hank Williams, tainted vaccines, federal vs state authority, excited Australians, antebellum history, AND the best carnitas of your life? This post has it all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NIAJune 2, 2021 at 8:08 AM

      I read this like Bill Hader used to read Stephan on weekend update.

      "This place had everything, Hank Williams, Reservoirs, expired Pfizer vaccines, and tiny little boots stepping on Arkansas!"

      Delete

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