Sept 7- Oxford, MS to Nashville, TN

(This is a post for Sept 7, although I am only getting around to posting it several days later. I just didnt want anyone freaking out about the date inconsistentcies between the title and the posting date)

I got a really solid rest last night at Puskus Lake.  Probably because the threat of bear mauling was no longer looming.  Anyways, I woke up at sunup, fired up my Coleman single burner camp stove that Grandma and Grandpa gave me several years ago, and heated up some water for tea.  After breakfast I took down my camp and got an early start towards Oxford for gameday.  



My first order of business was to find a place to shower.  Granted, I had showered the day before, but if I am able, I wouldnt mind washing off all the bugspray.  I saw some mention online of asking hotels if you could pay to use a shower, or if a guest had checked out, but not had their room cleaned, using the shower that way.  I tried several hotels.  Now remember its game weekend, so these places are packed.  One just told me that they didnt do that (Super 8), and two (hampton and holiday inn) told me they only had 2 or 3 people checking out, and they may not leave until 12pm (it was not even 8am at the time).  Also, none of their WiFi networks were working.  So I hunted down an open network at a laudromat and sat for a good hour updating blog and storing pictures.  I stopped back by the hotels to see if anyone had checked out yet.  Nope.  Guess no shower today.  


So I changed clothes and brushed teeth in the lobby bathroom of the hampton.  I donned my favorite maroon polo and my newly purchased Aggie hat.  Everyone has nice things to say about how welcoming Ole Miss can be.  I figure representing my team was the best way to experience the hospitality (also, I would really like to bum some free food from a tailgate).    



I parked as close to campus as I could get and paid $20 to park in a church parking lot.  Its a steep price, but from my days in Aggieland, I know that $20 is about the going rate for game day parking.  I had a nice walk through the downtown area to campus.  If there is one word to describe Oxford (and Mississippi in general) it would be:  columns.  Every building has columns.  Of course it makes for a very scenic walk.    




As I was walking towards campus, I had a little chat with one of the students going in a similar direction.  This guy dressed like every other guy at Ole Miss.  Tucked in gameday polo, khaki shorts, brown leather shoes, and a carefully coifed comb over.  He had a fifth of SoCo tucked into his back pocket and a solo cup.  He asked about Johnny Manziel.  And I am sure that is what most fans would want to talk about.  I appreciated the conversation.    



I continued to walk around campus to check out the  buildings.  Lots of red brick and nice landscaping.    







I went to check out The Grove.  The Grove is pretty much their quad at the entrance to campus, however, it has plenty of mature trees growing there, providing nearly complete shade.  The Grove is known for its tailgating, and canopies blanketed the grove.  Unfortunately, almost nobody had showed up to the tailgate yet.  The football game wasnt until 6pm (it was about 11:30am at the time), and the weather was a little warmer (about 90 degrees, but everybody was talking about how hot it was...I thought it was a nice day).  So I missed out on all the fun interactions with our friendly rivals.  The few that had shown up were concerned with setting up tailgates, and not with getting their party on (not that I wanted to get my party on, per se).      





This also meant that I was missing out on all the free food.  Since I had just spent the past hour and a half on walking around campus on a beautiful sunny day, I had worked up quite a hunger.  There was no free food to be found.    At one point, I was about to cross a small street when some guy with a wagon full of tailgating provisions hit the curb wrong with his wagon.  His trays of fried chicken spilled onto the concrete, along with several bottles of Jim Beam....i guess thats one way to sneak things in. The bottles didnt break, but he scrambled to pick them up, and other passersby laughed as well.  I wasnt concerned with the booze, however.  If I had a plate full of fried chicken that I had dropped on the concrete, I would have dusted it off and put it back on my plate.  I knew that if I picked up that chicken off the floor, everybody would be telling this story for years to come about the aggie that ate food off the ground.  Then it occurred to me that I could just take off my hat, and I would be just another Ole Miss fan.  I was hungry, so I sat and considered my options for a bit.  Ultimately, I decided the social pressure was too prohibitive.  This highlights the unique rules of taking a solo road trip.  If I had been with a buddy, it might have been a funny moment when we ate that delicious fried chicken off the concrete, but if you are by yourself, you instantly become that weird kid in elementary school that would eat things off the floor if you dared him.    

It was about time to get going, so I made the walk back to my car and headed off towards Nashville, TN.   The google had me taking a backroad highway for a couple hours before I hit the interstate.  I believe this is always a more interesting way to travel.  You can definitely make time on an interstate, but there are more interesting things to see on the backroad.  



Here is the now defunct (as of 1982) Mississippi Inudstrial College. This is what an abadonded school looks like.


If I was allowed to use two words to describe Mississippi (the first being columns), the second word would be kudzu.  If you are not familiar with this plant, it is an invasive and non-native vine that grows all over the place (see wikipedia).  Holy crap this stuff can completely coat sections of the forest!  I was amazed!  It was almost a game I was playing with myself to see if I could find a bigger kudzu grove.   The scale in my pictures dont really do it justice. Some of these groves covered the ground and all the trees and shrubs over a couple hundred yards. Imagine an entire hole on a golf course covered in vines.




After about 4hrs I finally arrived at my destination of Franklin, TN.  Along the way I took one of the most beautfiul routes.  I feel like this is almost becoming cliche on this blog, but I am just amazed at all the beautiful country homes I am seeing in this part of the country.  Farms nestled next to forest covered hillsides.  Bales of hay and cows wandering next to magnificient houses.





In Franklin, I wen to see my friends Bryan and Sarah G.  I hadnt seen them in quite a while, and they had just added an new addition to the family!  We watched the Aggie game, drank some beers, had a birthday cake, and enjoyed each others company.  It was great to see their two little ones, and their two little boys already seem like best buddies.  They had a wonderful house and beautiful family.  Thanks for hosting me!  



Later on that night, I was supposed to go into downtown to see Broadway in downtown Nashville.  Honestly, I was pretty exhasuted.  I could have sucked it up and gone to downtown, but I would be thinking about going home the entire time.  Instead, I found a reasonably priced Best Western in Brentwood and turned in for the night.  It was nice to have a bed after camping the previous nights.  Also, having stayed at a lot of best westerns, I can say this is one of the best.  Its really good looking, and the rooms have big flatscreens and fridges, as well as a couch and desk.  A steal for what I paid.    



I have really been overestimating the free time I would have on this trip. I have been keeping a pretty brisk pace in order to conform to my set schedule.   After the rush of the past couples days, I decided to stay in Nashville for one more night.  It was a tough decision because I was supposed to head out on a scenic 5 hr drive to the Smokey Mountains and camp on Sunday.  However, I really wanted to see Nashville and honestly, I felt a little road worn.  I needed a day to feel like a normal person, and not a person living out of a minivan.  I am pretty determined to fit the Smokey Mtns into my schedule later on.    

Tomorrow: a day in Nashville.