We left early Sunday morning headed for north Louisiana to stay with my aunt and uncle for a couple nights. On the way out we stopped by an overlook I’d been wanting to see. The concierge said you could see for 50 miles on a clear day. I think we must have stopped at the wrong one, I couldn’t see a mile on this clear morning! We had our first stop reserved for Starbucks of course but in Nashville a couple hours away. We were both tired, we came by a state park sign to one of the parks I wanted to hit but we didn’t have time for. I asked Amanda if she wanted to go hike the falls there, she didn’t even want to hike to a bathroom from the car that day! It wasn’t long after that when her head started bobbing. I didn’t even bother telling her to get a pillow, her hair was fixed and with a meet and greet with one of her pacemaker friend I knew she wouldn’t want to mess it up!
We were meeting in Nashville with a friend she’d met online in a pacemaker group over 10 years ago, it was great to officially meet her. She was so sweet, it’s always good to meet with someone with shared experiences. After following theses posts and Facebook pictures she’d enjoyed the trip. We were all tearing up as she told us how happy she was for us that Amanda was in good enough health to finally be able to do something like this. It feels like we’ve been on hold so long. I feel that everyone has the same sentiment as her, so happy for us, knowing what we’ve been through for years. Many also amazed we even went hiking! I’m so glad things worked out like they did so we had the opportunity to go hiking. We both really enjoyed I’m sure we’ll continue to go on hiking adventures.
Gas was cheaper in Memphis at Costco so we skipped our planned Nashville fill up. It was hot when we got gas and Amanda was in the sun as we were in line. She was changing shirts as soon as we got back on the road! We wanted to get BBQ since we were in Memphis. Amanda found a vegan BBQ place downtown that sounded good and had good reviews and was “award winning”. It was to go only so we ordered an walked around a bit then grabbed our food and went to a near by park. When we got there immediately wondered if we were in the wrong part of town. We pulled up next to a rough looking couple smoking weed in their truck while their kids played in the park. We found a picnic table off by itself to eat. I was continually eyeing the crowd, calculating if we were welcome or not.
We rarely do vegan places they’re mostly fake meats with lots of oil and no vegetables. This one end being just that, this meal was probably the least amount of veggies we’d had on the trip! I think the award winning and raving reviews came from a life long vegan and not a former meat eater! The healthiest thing we ate was grits, which I fix way better anyway. BBQ is just one of those things, it’s better to not knock off and just have a cheat meal with, I wish we’d just got some good Memphis pork BBQ. I’ll save you from the we’re plant based not vegan talk, we ate and got back on the road.
Once we crossed the Mississippi it was farmland and no hills. I wish we had some hills, it would have kept the wind from pounding us for a hundred miles or so. Amanda was nodding so I got her to get a pillow and I put my music on. She’s not the biggest fan but I listen to it for a bit. She didn’t get a vote though since she was going to sleep! So Lumineers station on Amazon music it was, indie folk rock, hipster music! There were no mountains or trees to hide the sun either, we’d had a reprieve from it with overcast skies, tall trees, and high mountains the past week. We started to see Louisiana type landscape and Texas gas prices about Little Rock. Amanda woke about then, good thing she did because she would’ve been woke by the Louisiana roads if not. They tuned rough right at the state line.
We rolled into my aunt and uncles about 9:30 wore plum out. I’d already told my other uncle we’d be sleeping in, so we’d catch him late morning. We talked awhile with our host then hit the sack early with no alarm set.