A Lot of Miles On My Car: October 2008

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Moving in!

After 2,700 miles, I finally arrived in "Aggie Land" of College Station Texas home of Texas A&M.

My room!

From Moved In

Representing Mt. Laurel EMS in Texas:

From Moved In

My roomates playing Guitar Hero, I'm still not very good...

From Moved In

After leaving Little Rock, I had every intention of going straight through into Texas. On the road, I saw a sign for Hope Arkansas which is where President Clinton grew up, and vastly influenced him. Of course, I pulled over and made the trip to Hope.

After arriving in town, I found the "Bill Clinton Birthplace". The museum was empty, but I was greeted by the director of the museum who showed me around the museum and then took me on a personal tour of Clinton's childhood home next door.

Clinton's Porch:

From Little Rock and Hope

Clinton's Living Room:

From Little Rock and Hope

One of Bill's favorite couches:

From Little Rock and Hope

Clinton's mom's room where he spent his first year:

From Little Rock and Hope

Clinton's nursery:

From Little Rock and Hope

Bathtub with one of Clinton's favorite childhood toys (play fishing rod). He was said to sit in the bathroom for hours focusing very intently on catching the plastic fish in the tub.

From Little Rock and Hope

There is a very famous picture of President Clinton next to this fireplace, and the Director of the museum offered to take a picture of me in the exact same spot.

From Little Rock and Hope

After leaving Hope after a great experience in the town, I crossed into TEXAS and had my first taste of Texas EMS when this helicopter crossed over the road and landed at the hospital.

From Little Rock and Hope

Little Rock and the Clinton Museum

From Little Rock and Hope

After driving to the middle of the state, I got to Little Rock Arkansas for the night. In the morning, I headed out to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library RIGHT when it opened.

The Library is perched right on the river under a former industrial bridge clearly reminiscent of the cities industrial past.

From Little Rock and Hope

The Library had a really neat custom motorcycle exhibit with about 40 custom made motorcycles:

From Little Rock and Hope

Inside the Library:

From Little Rock and Hope

My future office:

From Little Rock and Hope

My future boardroom:

From Little Rock and Hope

Crossing into Arkansas

Going across the Mississippi was more than just an important geographical marker, it was an important change in the countryside that I was traveling through, and the people I cam across. For the first time crossing through Arkansas I felt that I had left the developed East Coast behind. Gone were the rolling hills, and the conveniently placed rest stops every twenty miles. Most noticeable to me, as a driver, was the lack of cars. From this point until I got to Texas trucks outnumbered cars 10 to 1. Traveling through Arkansas I really got a sense of how poor parts of America are.

As some of you may know, President Bill Clinton, despite his flaws, is one of my greatest heros. From his work with poverty to international relations, I thought President Clinton was a great global leader. Naturally passing through his home state of Arkansas, the majority of my sightseeing trips were Clinton associated!

One of the first things I noticed in Arkansas was the smoke. From the minute I crossed the bridge, there was a distinctive haze in the air. After a few miles, I realized that all of the farms along my route had burning fields. After driving on highways since North Carolina, I once again got fed up with them and took local roads to investigate, and ended up staying on local country roads all the way to Texarkana, the gateway to Texas.

The cause of the haze:

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

Rocinante in Farm Country:

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

I thought this was neat until I had to dodge a few of them coming down the center of the road...

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

One thing that really struck me about Arkansas after living in the Northeast was the roads. They were PERFECTLY straight and PERFECTLY flat for miles and miles and miles.

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

COTTON! I picked some and it looks exactly like cotton balls you would buy at the drugstore. I got a few looks as I was taking pictures of the cotton, and I could only imagine what people were thinking with Rocinante's NJ plates.

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

The next two picture's aren't great photos, but the five minutes I spent driving through the town (which name I have now forgotten) will stick with me to the grave. The next two pictures are pictures of the main road in the town (you can see on my GPS that it is the only main road). The people were dressed in rags. A number of women were carrying buckets of water from a common pump back to the houses that were no larger than one or two rooms. I did not take pictures of this out of respect, but poverty in America is still strong, and I had no clue the extent until I drove through that small town on that dirt road.

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

Mississippi at last.

Reaching the Mississippi was actually a huge deal for me, and done quite accidentally. Leaving Graceland I got hopelessly lost despite the kind, and growing ever more frustrated, voice of my GPS copilot. I found myself on a street that bordered a great park along the famed Mississippi river. I was so thrilled as the river represents so much in American history, and I've grown up reading so much about it but have never seen it. This was definitely one of the defining moments for me on the trip. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Rocinante made it!

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Graceland!

Even though I was REALLY pressed for time in getting to Texas, I decided that no visit to Nashville would be complete without a visit to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presely.

I dont know if you all can read the sign in the picture, but I'm sure you heard about the gas shortage in some parts of the country, and little beknownst to me, I drove right through the middle of it about a week after it was at its worst:

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

After a restful nights sleep in a hotel next to the famous Grand Ole Opry, I started out the morning by heading over to Graceland!

From From Nashville to Arkansas. Oh yeah, Graceland too.

The physical "mansion" of Graceland is actually quite small, many suburban McMansions are bigger, but the complex built around it is HUGE. Accross the street there is an Elvis Presley visitors center, at which you purchase (suprisingly expensive) tickets to get on a shuttle bus accross the street to the actual mansion. Stepping inside is just like stepping into a bad 70's dream, but extraordinarily interesting: