Posts Tagged “tennessee”

Hey everybody. We’re on our way to Austin, and so are our hundreds (not kidding) of boxes of stuff. Our boxes and furniture are on a truck that I believe is currently in North Carolina or something; Brian, Pearl, and I are all at a Super 8 in Morristown, Tennessee. We’re hoping the three of us will be at our new apartment on Sunday, and our stuff is probably going to arrive on Wednesday. Phase 1 (packing) and Phase 2 (loading) were both so completely insane — and I am so, so exhausted from going through both of them plus lots and lots of tearful goodbyes — that I can’t even begin to describe this past week. Just trust me: it was crazy.

We’ll report back soon!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. Hope none of you thought we were still stuck in Vicksburg! We’ve been home just over a week, and of course I have a backlog of photos to post from the journey.

First of all, we went through Louisiana, and I owe you this:

Also, remember how I mentioned that it was snowing in Vicksburg? Well, here you can see some snow falling on the Super 8 pool (which was open, of course, since the day before had been 80 degrees or something!):

We did eventually get to Jackson and had to continue recovering from being sick. I had a little relapse, etc. I won’t bore you (or gross you out) with the details… but it did, unfortunately, prevent us from attending most of the events we had come to Jackson to enjoy. Alas! We still had a really nice visit with my aunt and uncle, and they took us to a very cool art event hosted by the Mississippi Museum of Art’s New Collector’s Club. It was a talk and studio tour at NunoErin studio in Jackson. They make very cool swamp-inspired, interactive artwork with thermoactive materials — basically, furniture, pillows, and wall panels that change color when warmed by body heat. Here is one of the artists demonstrating how to use a hair dryer to get the color change effect on some wall panels:

It was fascinating and really fun. Thanks, NunoErin!

Eventually we got back on the road to DC… and I have a few more state signs for you, including the elusive Virginia sign!

(By the way, we went through a little corner of Georgia, but they don’t bother to put up a welcome sign there. What gives, Georgia??)

In Virginia, we stopped at the Natural Bridge Exxon and saw this tiger:

It’s a far cry from the Itasca Wampus Cat, eh?

This tiger was made by Mark Cline, a fiberglass artist whose work we always see everywhere. In fact, we have several stories about Professor Cline… but they’re stories for another time.

Anyway, we’re moving to Austin. Wait, what? No, seriously. We are. I got a job. We got an apartment. Movers are coming a week from Tuesday. Soooo things are pretty busy and crazy. But we’ll keep you all posted as much as we can. Keep checking back!!

Yet another state has been p0wn3d by us! For those keeping track at home, you can check off Arkansas. Here’s the route log:

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Um, whoops. We kind of bit off a little more than we could chew today and drove nearly 700 miles. We were just trying to get where we were going, but we are both exhausted now! It didn’t help that a large portion of the day was very rainy (with really low visibility) and all of the day was bitterly cold thanks to a crazy ice storm that those of you who are back home in D.C. and the northeast are now experiencing. But!! Even so, we did have a few exciting moments. For example:

Yay! We’ve now been to 43 of the 50 states, plus D.C. of course.

Now, I don’t have a state sign for Texas, but I have something even better, if you can imagine that:

Hooray! Yet again, we got to stand in multiple states at once. This is becoming my #1 hobby.

This half-and-half sign is in Texarkana, which (obviously) straddles the Texas/Arkansas state line. There’s actually a big avenue running down to this marker from I-30 called State Line Street, and it’s lined with Texas signs on the west side and Arkansas sides on the east:

Now we are holed up in our luxurious Super 8 room in Mt. Vernon, Texas. It’s really quite a nice Super 8, and they scored some big points with me for this:

Nice touch, Mt. Vernon Super 8.

Hi everyone! We got kind of a late start today, but we still made it to tonight’s Super 8 in Crossville, Tenn. Alas, I have NO state signs for you guys. For some reason, the Virginia sign keeps eluding me. We go to Virginia all the time, but we don’t usually have the camera; today we took I-66 out of D.C. and didn’t see the sign! Then, when we crossed into Tennessee this evening, it was already too dark to get a good photo. Hopefully we can get both of those state signs on our way back home.

Oh. Did I not mention we are on another road trip? The main event this time is Christmas in Jackson, Mississippi, with my extended family (hi, y’all!). Brian and I are adding a few extras, depending on how things go. Right now we’re en route to Austin, Texas, and we’re very excited even though apparently it takes 3 days to drive there!

Here’s today’s route log, courtesy of Brian.

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