Day 10

Finally, a day with no problems. The weather was great all the way from Nashville to Melbourne and traffic was light.

I left the hotel about 6:45am, gassed up and was on the road headed west by 7:00am. I made pretty good time, keeping my speed up and trying not to stop too much. The first hour or so went well but then I started to see interesting things that I thought I should check out. First, there's was Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch and several other establishments with her name on them. I exited the freeway and found that everything was 17 miles further up the road. Not wanting to take that much time, I turned around and headed back to the interstate. I did stop long enough to take a picture of a huge buffalo...the town's namesake...in front of the Loretta Lynn Cafe. I didn't take long enough to check out the inside.

A little further down the road, I came to a sign advertising the Shiloh battlefield. Well, this I thought would be important enough for me to take the time to see it. However, when I exited and saw the sign, I discovered it was 50 miles away. I decided not to drive the extra 50 miles as I still had over 300 miles to go. I tried to visit a visitor's information location but it was only 8:30am and it wasn't open yet...so back to the interstate.

About 15 minutes later, I saw a sign advertising the home of Casey Jones and a railroad museum. Although it would be interesting, I passed by without stopping. Next stop, Jackson, TN.

The road between Nashville and Memphis had some interesting sights but there were also some interesting city/town names, such as Buffalo, Cuba Landing, Paris, Parkers Crossing, Whiteville, Alamo, Brownsville, Somerville, and who could ever forget Bucksnort.

I did make a short stop at one of my favorite places on the road...Love's. I topped off the tank, went to the bathroom and got something to drink...mostly I needed to stretch my legs. The next leg wasn't that long but I started getting into Memphis city traffic and had to slow down. I followed the course my GPS suggested and headed north on I-55 towards northern Arkansas. I skirted downtown Memphis and crossed the mighty Mississippi River into Arkansas. Shortly after crossing I came to West Memphis and decided it was time to eat lunch...it was only 11:30am. I found a gas station with a McDonalds co-located and stopped for a while. I had a leisurely lunch and then hit the road.

By the way, did I tell you my GPS does not like Washington D.C. and the surrounding area? Well, it doesn't. Once I was out of that area, I had no problems with its directions and I arrived at Winston-Salem and Nashville in fine shape. So, today I was following the route the GPS suggested without hesitation.

About 20-25 miles north of West Memphis, I was directed off I-55 onto State Hwy 14. I remembered from the map on Google the night before that this would take me across the middle of the State over to Melbourne...but that's about all I remembered. I was trusting the GPS to get me there. I only made one correction to the suggested route and that was not taking the scenic route to Batesville from Newport. I wanted the straightest and fastest route at this point. It worked out fine.

Hwy 14 had some interesting town names as well...Harrisburg, Waldenburg, Salado, Maple Springs, Mt. Pleasant, Grubbs and Oil Trough...yes, that's right, Oil Trough! I actually stopped in Oil Trough at a very nice little picnic/park area overlooking the White River...it was quite a view.

Another interesting sight was when I crossed what looked like a river...about 50 yards across and full of water. The sign before the bridge said, "Ditch #60". I wonder if there's 59 nine other ditches like #60. Maybe they ran out of river names.

Another interesting sign I saw along the way in several locations said, "Road unsafe when under water". Well, duh!

Hwy 14 was a pretty good road...small two lane with not much shoulders, but the traffic was light and I never had to pass anyone. What really surprised me about the area all along Hwy 14...about 80 miles of it...was all the agriculture I saw. There was a lot of rice and wheat...mostly rice. The area could have passed for a lot of places in the Brazos Valley. I didn't expect to see such a large agricultural area.

Once I arrived in Batesville...25 miles from Melbourne...I didn't need the GPS anymore. The road between Batesville and Melbourne is full of twists and turns and has an excellent surface. It was the most enjoyable leg of the trip today...by far.

I had dinner at the local Pizza Inn with Merinda's grandparents, mom and brother's family and had fun watch Jude eat. We're back home now relaxing and waiting for the kids go to sleep. I've already read 5-6 books to Penelope and I'm sure there will be more tomorrow. I'm planning on resting up tomorrow and hit the road early on Friday, headed for Arlington to see my third grandchild, so no post tomorrow...back on Friday.