We got up later than planned in the morning. I guess we needed some extra sleep after the first day. I had a delicious breakfast of peanut butter on bread and then we broke down the tent and loaded it back into the trunk.
We made the short twenty minute drive to Idlewild in Burlington and it was a beautiful morning for disc golf.
Last time I was here the sun was rising over this pond. It looked better then but the flowers add to it this time.
I remembered a lot about it from a year and a half ago so we didn't get lost looking for tees this time. The course is still amazing. I wish there was one like this close to us. It's so well-kept and challenging without being too ridiculous.
Well, maybe I spoke too soon. Hole 15 is still a little much but after playing Carousel Park in DE, this single 1001-foot hole doesn't really seem so bad.
I had a good game, I don't know my exact score yet but I think I was probably a few over par.
The weather was perfect but it was getting warm as we finished our game. I still didn't want to leave. I'd like to camp out in the park and play a few games one day. Let's plan it.
We made a stop or two to eat and get supplies before we headed southwest and through Louisville. This was the only place we really hit any traffic and it wasn't too bad.
We hit mile 1000 at 7:09pm CST at mile 19 on I-24W in Kentucky.
This is the spot where we turned 1000. Despite the lackluster view of this particular spot, Kentucky was full of entertaining signs and random things. There was Cox's Smokers, a club for horses (Roger does the minutes... neigh, he just holds the secretary title), and plenty more amusements.
The directions we took had us on back roads for a while, which was a really nice way to actually see the area instead of just seeing highways and rest stops. The sun was setting over this farm and it looked really nice. You had to be there.
We were also routed through this seemingly deserted town. There was some traffic but it was strangely quiet when we came through.
The best part about our off-highway drive was this bridge over the Mississippi River. It looked like the cars were driving up into nowhere as the other side was very dark and the bridge was steep. We drove over it thrice.
We crossed from the back roads of Kentucky to the back roads of Missouri. I need to brush up on my geography.
Back on the highway, we drove through Missouri and then through Arkansas for a while. It's hard to see what these places are like in the dark but it seemed like a lot of the same, flat land.
We finally arrived in Tennessee, which was to be our final stop for the day, but since we passed right into Memphis I wanted to go check it out.
The weather was amazing and we walked along the Mississippi on the well-lit river walk.
This bridge looked really nice passing over the river, even though it was too dark to really see much of the water.
We read about Beale Street being a popular area so we walked through the relatively deserted town and then came upon this raucous block party lit almost entirely by neon signs. The music was loud and the people were dancing in the streets blocked off to traffic. Everyone was having a great time and the beer was flowing from every tap on the block.
A little farther west on the street was much calmer but there were still plenty of bars open and people in them. It was a pretty crazy change from the quiet of the river we had just come from. I wish we'd had more time to enjoy it.
After leaving downtown, we headed to T.O. Fuller State Park on the outskirts of town and drove around trying to find a site to camp at. We went for the cheapest, which was a primitive site in a field at the entrance to the campground. All we need was the ground to set up our tent. It was a big field.
Once the tent was set up, I was ready to go to sleep so we could get started early again.
Total driving distance: 551.4 miles.
In case the photo last night didn’t show the camp site well, this is what it looked like. Just an open field. We were up pretty early and took the tent down to head back into Memphis.
I wanted some real food for breakfast so we asked around and someone suggested Miss Polly’s.
The food was really good. All I got was eggs and toast but it was what I wanted. Joanna’s omelet was awesome.
Beale Street is a different place in the daytime. It’s just like any other city, I suppose. No one dancing in the street but still plenty of bars and restaurants open. One thing I really liked was the Blue Walk of Fame on the sidewalk.
We walked around the city for a while. It was a nice day and it’s a cool town. We were going to stop at the Civil Rights Museum but it’s a bit pricy. It’s definitely a city I would come back to one day.
We headed back to the Mississippi to check that out in the sunlight. It’s huge and the current was moving along quickly. We walked across a bridge to Mud Island, which is in the middle of the river.
This is an aerial view of what the island is. There is a scale model of the Mississippi River that runs along the whole island. It shows all the twists, tributaries and elevation changes from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a pretty amazing thing.
From the big field in the middle of the island there is a great view of the skyline.
There are stairs that lead down into the river so I felt like I had to put my feet in. It was chilly but it felt nice and now I’ve stood in the Mississippi River.
We were told by security to not photograph the bridges because of homeland security, which is crap, so I took some pictures of the bridges. It’s great that to supposedly protect our freedom so much freedom is taken away.
We couldn’t spend a lot of time out there because we parked at a meter so we headed back over the bridge. I took a cool shot of the pyramid on the way. We got back to the car late but no ticket.
We got back on the road heading south, entering Mississippi. We had lunch on the way and started looking for disc golf courses in the area.
We found one called Chautauqua Park that ended up being really awesome. One of the holes was on an outcropping above a little ridge. One shot was a long shot with huge drop and a creek crossing.. I put my disc right under the basket on my drive though without even seeing it for a birdie.
The place was also full of quirky things like a rock garden and a serenity path. There were even tent sites right in the path of a few holes.
This was a great course and I wish it wasn’t so far away. I would love to play it again sometime.
We got back on the road and headed into Louisiana. We headed straight for New Orleans and made it there in a little over two hours.
Bourbon Street is exactly what you would expect: it’s loud, bright and full of people drinking. It’s pretty overwhelming to walk down the street and be bombarded by music from all directions, see beads flying over your head and people smoking and drinking in the street.
There were balconies filled with people all along the street throwing beads at people.
They didn’t require that you flash them but some people did anyway. Some people just enjoyed their drink while watching the show above.
After we walked the street for a while, we rejoined the rest of the world back on Canal Street. I wanted to go to a gumbo place but they had closed already. I settled for some hush puppies and a local golden ale. It was delicious.
We then began a long drive to a park on the other side of the lake which turned out to be closed and not accepting late arrivals for camping. We checked another place that was going to charge about as much as a hotel room. Finally, we settled on Wal*Mart’s parking lot.
It’s not ideal but it’s free. They encourage people to sleep there while on the road so I finally took them up on it.
Total driving distance: 503.2 miles.
