DAY 7 – From MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE TO NASHVILLE, TENNESEE – 279 miles

Wil says:

09/06

Tuesday was a short day and we chose to deviate into Kentucky.

The land was very green and much more trees than I expected. 

In Kentucky we passed through the Land between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

First crossing over Kentucky Lake that is at least a mile wide with an imposing bridge spanning between two causeways and exiting similarly over Lake Barkley.

Both these lakes are long and thin and more than 100 miles long. 

The land in between is heavy forest. It was a pretty drive.

We reached Nashville and with the temperature pushing 100 we took an air conditioned nap before we went hunting for a place to eat. We found a nice steakhouse with a cowboy theme 

and after a good meal we turned in for an early night.

That’s it for today.

Anita says:

From Memphis we headed northeast to set foot in Kentucky and continued then back south east to reach Nashville. It was a much shorter drive (279 miles) and we took our time to get on the road. By now we are really smooth in getting ready in the morning after breakfast to get on the road.

Backroads were again our friends. 

And green. Never a shortage of green.

Some of the homes were well taken care with well manicured lawns

We stopped for lunch on a small crossing. I was so happy to "see" a (South African) pie (American tampenade) and bought two for lunch. One turned out to be a burrito with beans (ugh…still not accustomed to the beans) and the other was a pizza roll. It does not help if you buy food without your glasses.

We were entertained by Amish “pick-up” truck:

We passed through Jackson. How many Jackson’s are there in the USA?

Wil chose to take us through the shape of a U through Kentucky and we crossed the Land Between the Lakes:

before we dropped down south.

We went for dinner at a local place where I tried out “chicken fried chicken” with loaded mash and onion rings on top – mmmm, good, but so rich.

After dinner we strolled through music row which housed several recording studios. On a banner outside each studio, the winners of accolades are showcased.

More artwork towered in the parks and on traffic circles

Until we speak again.

DAY 6 – From OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA TO MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – 532 miles

Wil Says:

9/05/2016

We turned east. After an hour we turned right, once again leaving the Interstate for backroads.

Farmland gradually gave way to more and more trees as we approached the Ouachita National Forest. The roads were more hilly and windy as we weaved in and out of the National Forest.

We came across small towns and even one bigger town called Mena. At every small place with a filling station and general store I expected to see a banjo player on the porch.

Some roads were quiet and others more busy as we followed Google maps to traverse Arkansas. Close to Little Rock we popped out of the forest and back on the Interstate. We stopped to fill up with gas, not at Shell or Exxon but at a “Kum and Go”.

At the end of Arkansas, we came to the Mississippi, and we crossed over into Tennessee and pulled into Memphis. Anita navigated us to Beale street which is partly a pedestrian mall. 

There were several bars with loud music

and apparently no restriction on drinking beer in public. Of course I did not indulge since I don’t drink beer . . .

Walking down to the river was hot work the temperature into the 90’s [35+ Celsius]. Our hotel was 10 miles out of downtown and after check-in we found the local Pizza store. 

   

That’s it for today.

Anita Says:

Out of Oklahoma City we headed east, through Arkansas to Tennessee – it was long drive again, yes again – the USA is a huge country. Each of the States feels like a country of its own, has a life and culture of its own.

Oklahoma was seeded with Indian Casinos right and left of the I-40 and the Indian Nation Turnpike. Yip, we run into or maybe unto “turnpikes and pikes” instead of parkways, freeways or high ways.

Navigation was hard today, since Wil chose the most interesting route through the Ouachita National Forest. 

We lunched in Mena, “a bigger town” in the National Forest. Frankly I was too scared to stopped at the smaller towns.

I enjoyed the dense foresty roads, but did not like the more than 20 possums with a skunk in between road kills.

Sometimes I doubted if Google navigated us on the right road, but as soon as we reached Little Rock, Arkansas, I knew we are moving in the right direction.

12 Years ago when we decided to emigrate to the USA, I invested in Bill Clinton’s biography (please bear with me, I did not know better J - I thought it was a suitable way to understand the politics of the USA) and well, he came from Little Rock, Arkansas.

On our way to our hotel in Memphis which is known as the home city of Elvis Presley

we decided to explore Beale Street. Mmmm, every place has its own street artists and aroma too. 

Beale street was busy, we stumbled onto Memphis “walk of fame”.

I liked this one

On our way to the banks of the Mississippi

Happy days until we speak again.

Oklahoma

9/04

We kept going south. The drive was not flat but not hilly either. A fair amount of traffic.

We crossed the Stateline into Kansas without knowing. The road sign backgrounds changed and that’s how we knew. We eventually climbed on the turnpike which is a toll road: wide open and 75mph speed limit. What a pleasure. Every 30 miles or so there was an ultra-city type of service station in between the north and southbound lanes. The one where we stopped had a Dunkin Donuts. Get the picture?

Off we went and once again the Stateline came and passed unannounced. We cruised into Oklahoma City on a sleepy Sunday afternoon. 

That’s it for today

DAY 5 - FROM OMAHA, NEBRASKA THROUGH KANSAS INTO OKLAHOMA - 455 miles.

Hi y’all – I am so sorry I did not blog yesterday – I was just under the weather and completely tired. But Willem was great to stand in for me while I passed out in bed.

Let me recap Day 4 (Rapid City to Omaha) through my eyes:

I forgot that we would be giving back the hour that we gained on Day 3 and therefore took my time to get ready for the road resulting in us being an hour late on schedule. So about half an hour into our travels we jumped forward with an hour back into Central Time.

Settling in ready to hit the road, nor Wil or I could see a speed limit signs (road sign showing maximum speed). How could that be? You did not expect less of me, I Googled “speed limit” in South Dakota – a whopper of 80 miles/hour maximum. Did we enjoy travelling in South Dakota.

Again, Wil picked an interesting road through the Badlands. Seriously, I could see why it has the name – nothing grows there. It was a “grand canyon” formed out of white “mud” walls, well see for yourself.

We pulled off the road for a picture. Taking the picture, I heard something in the grass close to me. I was back in the car faster than “the speed of light”. Looking back, I saw the disturbers of my peace:

Wil touched on all the small towns in Nebraska with a population from 1 – 1000 every few miles – here is Monovi’s,  the one man town

situated on the Outlaw Trail

Makes you wonder… was all the rest killed? If you have time to research the history, let me know.

Wil mentioned in his blog - the farm implements on the narrow roads:

And the Missouri river

Day 5 – From Omaha, Nebraska to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – 455 miles

It is Wil’s turn to be tired tonight and he passed out – we will post his view tomorrow.

Anita Says:

We dropped down south from Nebraska, through Kansas into Oklahoma – another long day. I seriously don’t know how Willem is keeping it up – he is doing all the driving and he does a stellar job. Thank you to the Lord for keeping us safe through all of these thousands of miles.

More fields of sunflowers and feed crops.

All green, crossed rivers and passed through towns. The towns felt closer to civilization than the small towns on the road through Nebraska. Though Nebraska is more civilized with the law to wear helmets on bikes in comparison to North & South Dakota and Kansas where no helmets are required. We saw some “interesting” people on bikes.

Kansas has no scruples with their road signs: “Don’t drive drunk. You drink, you drive, you lose.”

There were some oil drill pumps both in Nebraska and Kansas.

The wind is still blowing – I do not complain, Maybe therefore all the windmills. I find it interesting that the winds are blowing since we started driving – other than that, we had perfect weather so far.

Tonight we settled in Oklahoma City.

Have a great night – tomorrow is a very long day – not sure if we will get to the blog.

Till we meet again. Blessings.

DAY 4: Rapid City SD to Omaha NE - giving us 2 more states, Iowa[38] and Nebraska[39]

9/03

A long day of travelling and we chose the road less traveled. It brought us to Badlands National Park. The Big wall consist of petrified white mud/clay like earth a couple of hundred feet high. The erosion is spectacular leaving deep canyons and gulleys. Dongas and gulches surrounded by white flats that create a moonscape second to none.

From there east on the Interstate for a hundred miles before we turned off again to pursue the smaller roads. We roughly followed the Missouri River. Sometimes we were close, then again we were far and oblivious that it was there. Sometimes on high ground looking down on it and sometimes low on a causeway with water all round.

 Initially the road was quiet but gradually more fellow road users appeared, sometimes other travelers with out-of-state plates and sometimes tractors or other farming equipment crawling along the road and forcing us to drop to 10 miles an hour.

Once we crossed the State line into Nebraska the towns, though small were close together and we rarely traveled more than 15 miles before some small establishment appeared. The population of these places were mostly  a couple of hundred but sometimes it was less than 100 and sometimes more than 1000.

Then we found it. Monowi, NE has a population of 1[ONE]! I kid you not!

Eventually we crossed the river into Iowa and followed the Interstate to Omaha for a very good steak dinner.

That’s it for today

DAY 3 - BISMARCK (NORTH DAKOTA) TO RAPID CITY(SOUTH DAKOTA), our 37th STATE

Wil says:

From Bismarck we drove straight west and we were enchanted by massive steel sculptures seemingly more than a 100 ft tall.

Once we turned south the freeway gave way to a 2-way road. It was quiet but the landscape was engaging as it gradually changed. As it became more undulating the planted farmland gave way to fields with cattle grazing. 

We passed through one horse towns with 4 or 5 buildings. 

The Black Hills came into sight and just before we reached them the town of Sturgis happened. It’s claim to fame is its bikers rally annually in August [pushing 1 million this year] and the whole place spoke of Bikers. I have never seen such a concentration of huge bars and bar patios.

If you tried to pub-crawl [or bar-hop] without a motorbike you will suffer severe exhaustion.

On to the Black Hills and the twisting, very scenic road took us to Deadwood. 

Bigger and more alive than I anticipated [it is a long weekend] but definitely worth the visit. 

More tree lined twisting and turning of the picturesque road eventually brought us to Crazy Horse. A very impressive rock sculpture, even though not finished, 650 feet tall.

Mount Rushmore was the real draw card for me to visit the Black Hills. When I read that it was completed between 1927 and 1941 I was doubly impressed. It really blew me away even though I knew what to expect. 

Rapid City is where we sleep tonight. The holiday weekend vibe is very prevalent and the place is buzzing.

That’s it for today

Anita Says: 

Today, pictures will tell the stories.

With 432 miles to travel to today, we left just after 8 am Central time. Before we strike Dickinson we gained an hour by jumping/falling back on Mountain time. We traveled westwards in a pretty much straight road to Dickinson in North Dakota. Flatlands with rolling prairies was the overruling scenery and made us think of the East Freestate. 

I have seen a “red barn” too.

And some over-sized sculptures - Ducks in flight.

Dropping down south from Dickinson, my dearest hubbie, excelled in choosing a most interesting route off the highways. The two way traffic road 

snaked through the rural areas while the prairies were substituted by hillier country side. 

We encountered some white tailed deer.

If we blinked, we would have missed Reva with its police station and church.

In the Custer National Forest, it became more up and down with interesting rock formations. 

The snow fences alerted me of tough winters.

Getting out of the car to take pictures the fresh whiff of the raw grass fields surprised me. I was thrown back to my childhood years on the farm.

In Sturgis, well Wil will have to tell. I will just share my pictures.

And we run into a Mustang Rally.

From Sturgis we entered into the Black Hill National Forest. Rock formations here much more impressive than in Custer. 

We stopped at Pactola Lake for pictures, 

traveled through the quaint little town of Hill City which was apparently a mining town before.

But we did not see any

And then…it was time for Crazy Horse, after about 68 years still not finished.

And Mt. Rushmore, impressive and completed before my birth (1941) in a time span of 14 years.

Dinner and hotel was in the downtown area of Rapid City – interesting “Curio Collection” Hotel Alex Johnson.

DAY 2 – ON ROUTE TO BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA – OUR 36th STATE.

Wil says:

Minneapolis has a cosmopolitan feel, although not a big city by any standards. It feels sort of condensed, it is arty but business-like and downtown has quite a nightlife: the whole spectrum.

I did notice somebody was cultivating a little veggie garden on what I perceived as a traffic island. I was told that a lot of Mong and African immigrants living in communals were farming these “public” gardens and it was commonplace and widely accepted.

Our 400-mile drive took us out of the city into the Rural area. We crossed the 45-degree latitude line meaning we were twice the distance from the equator than the “Steenbok Keerkring” aka Tropic of Capricorn. The 31 degree Celsius [82F] temperature made this seem insignificant. 

The rolling prairie, green bushes and lots of water gradually gave way to drier open planes. Moving into North Dakota the land became very flat.

Bismarck is the capitol of North Dakota. Situated on the banks of the Missouri river, it is a big town rather than a small city. It feels very rural. The Missouri is impressive, bigger than any South African river I have seen and it is literally thousands of miles from the ocean.

That’s it for today.

Anita Says:

Willem and I are both strong willed and butting heads are common. Well, our Lord with His sense of humor find it appropriate this morning to remind us of 1 Corinthians 13 in our morning Bible Study! A reminder to be kind and loveable to each other especially on a long road trip in North Dakota with open flat fields similar to the Freestate. This trip feels like a preparation for retirement – 24 hours a day in each other’s company.

We are so blessed with the weather taking into consideration Hermine hitting the East Coast tonight. We experience great sunshine, but not too hot.

Eating breakfast looking out on a busy street in downtown Minneapolis this morning, reminded me of a Beautiful South song – “It could have been Rotterdam, Amsterdam, ..” On that street corner all kinds of life collided. I softly whispered a prayer for the pimp accompanied by one of his workers, a business man in a suit with his little boy of 5 years old clutching his soft toy, another man signing with his middle finger to a driver that nearly run him over, a woman being pushed in a wheelchair by her son and another lady neatly dressed in business clothes seemingly on her way to work.

We left town during “mid-morning rush” but not a patch on OC traffic. The drive was long today. I witnessed the neat farm steads and all kinds of agriculture – feed crops, corn, sunflowers.

The small silos built with CMU blocks reminded me of the animation movie “The Good Dinosaur” where the critter had a party enjoying the stored crop of the Dinosaur family.

As we continued on our way to Bismarck we left the luscious green fields behind for a flatter drier area similar to the Vrystaat vlaktes.

In Bismarck we explored some parks close to the Missouri river, before we headed to our dinner place and hotel for the night grateful that we arrived safe and sound.