Knoxville to Memphis (Almost)

We had originally planned to drive from Lynchburg to Memphis today, but my brother Christopher and his wife Bethany live here in Cordova, just a few miles outside of Memphis, with their two kids, Rylee and Brady, and we wanted to spend more time with them today, so that's why we drove to Knoxville last night. We're here at Christopher and Bethany's place, and Rylee and Brady are asleep now. Rylee turned two in June, and she's not quite on top of her list of uncles, so she was calling me Uncle Scott all day. Scott's my other brother, and she just saw him pretty recently, so that explains that, I guess. I think she's pretty much got it now, though. We'll find out in the morning. Here we are with the four Tennessee Walters.The trip down today went pretty well for the most part. I was getting a little sleepy for a little bit while we were listening to an audio book, but once we got to talking and actually hanging out again, I woke back up and got us to Christopher and Bethany's house with no complications. We went out for dinner at Jim n' Nick's, which is a good old southern kitchen barbecue place. You know, we're in Memphis, we gotta get barbecue. It's just what you do. Especially since we're leaving the South behind, and there's a big question mark over the whole getting good barbecue in the future thing. To make the most of our southern food experience, Kirsten had fried green tomatoes for the first time.
Tomorrow is long trip through Arkansas, which I've never been to, Oklahoma, which I've managed to avoid, and a little bit of Kansas, which I have also been spared up until now. I hear it's pretty boring landscape, but all of this discovery of new places has got me pretty pumped, so hopefully my curiosity will keep me awake and interested. We're staying in Wichita tomorrow night, so if anyone knows of any good places to eat there, let me know. Send me an e-mail or call. I'll check in with you tomorrow and let you know everything goes on the road, and I'll probably have some more pictures as well. See ya!

Kent

Lynchburg to Knoxville

I feel kind of bad writing this at 5 minutes to one in the morning after the last week of summer classes and several exhausting days of moving. I know that this is a very big deal, and as we crossed over the border from Virginia to Tennessee tonight, I thought about the fact that we're not going to be driving right back to Virginia in a few days. All of our things are headed west, and the landlord has the old key; this is it. So I wish I wasn't so tired and ready for bed, because I want to describe all of the details and do the whole event justice. It's a cross-country road trip, for goodness' sake. Oh well.
We pulled out of Lynchburg around 8 PM. Kirsten was a little bit weepy in her eyeballs, and I was a little bit weepy in my heart. I just didn't show it as much, I guess. Lynchburg gave us a few raindrops as we were headed into Forest, and I told Kirsten that VA was crying just a little bit because it's going to miss us too. I thought about how it's kind of cool that we can drive the entire width of a pretty good sized country on roads that are mostly well-maintained and well-connected, and I wonder how the roads are across China or Russia or Australia. Can drivers in other large countries drive from one end to the other and count on the whole network of roads being smooth to navigate and reliably accessible? Probably so, but I don't know... It's an interesting thought.
Anyhow, very easy trip down to Knoxville, and a smooth arrival with the exception of some weird construction and lane shifting right at our exit. If we had a little more time, we might be able to visit Dollywood or maybe Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, which we laughed at when we saw the sign. Kirsten and I pictured very small sausages doing back flips and catching treats from trainers in wetsuits. But then, we are both pretty tired.
Enormous thanks again to everyone who came over yesterday and packed up our stuff. I still can't get over how efficiently the whole thing went, and I wish I could find better words to tell you all how much we appreciate you. We love you all, and we will miss you. We are looking forward to seeing you again next time we're over here or when you can make your way out west. Tomorrow: Knoxville to Memphis, and hopefully some photos for you. Bye for now.

P.S. Because Kirsten and I both forgot that I was supposed to carry her over the threshold after the honeymoon, I carried her over with great ceremony as we were leaving the house after it was all packed up and empty. Here we are leaving.

No Shortcuts

I guess there are some times that being resourceful and innovative just doesn't pay the dividends you'd like. After doing a lot of searching and investigating and dragging of routes on Google Maps, I have discovered that if you're going to drive across the United States, you just have grin and bear it. You have to drive a long time. A really long time. Like at least 40 hours or, in our case, more like 46 or 47. We're going Lynchburg to Memphis (my brother and sister-in-law's place) on the first day, Memphis to something halfway to Denver on the second, that place to Denver (my aunt and uncle) on the third, Denver to Boise (Kirsten's aunt and uncle) on the fourth, and then Boise up into Washington on the last day. I was really hoping for some kind of wormhole or something awesome like that (it's just the sort of thing that would hide out in the middle of nowhere in some place like Kansas), but even if any do exist in the US, it's unlikely that you could drive a Toyota into them and equally unlikely that they would be published (even on the internet, old reliable thing that it is). The resulting realization from my research, and a reality that is settling a little more heavily on me every day like some kind of dead thing I have to carry around, is that I have a really long drive in front of me, and there's nothing I can do about it. So what I want to know from you is this: what do you do to make long drives interesting? It will probably be just Kirsten and I making the drive, but there's an outside shot that two of our friends may be able to come with us. Either way, we need some entertainment. Anyone made a ridiculously long road trip before that you want to share about? How did you make it tolerable? We're dying to hear about it. Let me know. Thanks ahead of time.
Also, while I'm at it:

• The second night will be a stop in either Kansas City or Wichita, the former by way of Missouri from Memphis, the latter by way of Oklahoma from Memphis. Any input on which is better?
• Going from Denver to Boise, anyone know whether a lot of northeastern Utah is better than a lot of southern Wyoming and a little northern Utah?

Any tips on this whole thing would be great. Fire away. Thanks.