July 28, 2004

Road Movie to Berlin Little Rock

Posted by Kieran

Hello from a motel in Little Rock, Arkansas, which turns out to have free ethernet. (The motel, not the city.) Today’s route ran from near Salem, SC, up I-85 to Spartanburg, SC where I picked up I-26 to Asheville, NC, where you hit I-40. The drive across the Smokies was beautiful, though there were some brutally heavy rainstorms. Then I drove across the whole of Tennessee, lengthways. The first city was Knoxville. I swear the smug looking guy in the fancy sportscar who cut me off around there looked familiar. The longer it went on, the flatter and less interesting Tennessee became, and the more I was forced to resort to strategies like singing in the car in order to keep myself awake. Well, to be honest maybe I didn’t need that much provocation. Here’s forty seconds’ worth of video from a day’s worth of driving. Tomorrow: On to Amarillo! I wonder if we have any readers in Amarillo.

Posted on July 28, 2004 03:41 AM UTC
Comments

Hey, Kieran: sorry about the mess at the I-26/I-40 intersection right now… and if you’d come a couple of days sooner, you’d have had views across the Smokies to die for. But I don’t mind that: being British, the weather in WNC reminds me of home. (‘If you don’t like the weather, don’t worry, because something different will be along soon enough.)

Posted by nick · July 28, 2004 03:51 AM

If you make it as far as Flagstaff, yell “Yo, Biff!” out of the window….

Posted by biff3000 · July 28, 2004 04:02 AM

I wonder if there are any readers in Amarillo.

Posted by jdw · July 28, 2004 04:19 AM

But have you seen one of these yet? I took that picture a couple of weeks ago when driving toward the Indiana Dunes.

Posted by eszter · July 28, 2004 04:29 AM

Clearly you were involved in a fatal motor crash on the first day of your trip and are actually descending into Red State Hell.

Posted by fyreflye · July 28, 2004 06:37 AM

Just don’t pick up any hitchers!

Posted by Rod · July 28, 2004 01:55 PM

The last two hours from Memphis to Little Rock is the roughest part. Flat, flat, flat with lots of rice farming as far as the eye can see. Had I known you were staying in Little Rock we’d have rolled out the welcome committee. (‘We’ being the two CT readers in LR!)

Posted by Matthew · July 28, 2004 02:51 PM

A better link for my beloved former home city of Knoxville would be www.southknoxbubba.net/skblog/. That is what the town is really like!

Tom

Posted by Tom · July 28, 2004 02:53 PM

lemme know if you’re coming through Austin to get to Amarillo. I’m sure there’s lots of readers here…

Posted by Heather · July 28, 2004 04:13 PM

Would that be this Amarillo?

Posted by Chris Bertram · July 28, 2004 04:18 PM

I swear I saw that same Volvo with that same sticker when I crossed the Mississippi on my way from Charlotte to Tucson. This was in Vicksburg though.

That’s mighty weird.

Posted by Scott · July 28, 2004 04:47 PM

Matthew’s right; the Delta section of Arkansas is hard on the eyes. Arkansas is actually a quite pretty state, but you have to go north to the Ozarks, or to the forests in the south/southwest, to really get it. (I know, because I live in Jonesboro, about 70 miles north of the path you took on 1-40 over the Mississippi River.)

Posted by Russell Arben Fox · July 28, 2004 06:52 PM

Nit: It was a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, not an Abrams.

And, in the earlier thread about your drive I suggested you stay off the interstate because they’re boring. Now that you have proven that to yourself, get onto the 2-lane. It’s fun!

Posted by Hank · July 28, 2004 10:13 PM

Where is it you’re going? Arizona? Well, let me know if you go through Seattle to get there from Little Rock. I wouldn’t let anyone else know that if I were you, but let me know.

Posted by Ophelia Benson · July 29, 2004 01:24 AM

Well, you have one reader in Norman, OK (just South of OKC)…I’m actually headed in the reverse direction on I-40, out to NC, on Saturday.

Posted by BenA · July 29, 2004 06:07 AM

Hmph. If you think Tennessee is boring, just wait until the last 2 hours closing in on Amarillo. Other than the escarpment east of town, nada to look at but silos and grain.

Posted by rvman · July 29, 2004 05:18 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.