Day 3: Rest Stop, Memorials, and a Variety of Lines

Nashville Skyline, Memphis Pyramid, Arkansas fields, Rest-stop creek, El Comanchero Ponders Life.

At the Country Store/kitch/cafe yesterday, where we watched the storms, I talked to the lady behind the counter in the "country store" part of the building. 

"This place has been here a long time, hasn't it?"

"Yep - been here 40 years or more. Jim's the owner. Well, he wasn't always the owner, 'cause Jim started it. Well, the first Jim started it, then he sold it to Jim, so it has only had two owners and they both's Jim." She laughed.

"Well, are there any others? Is there another one down the road? I'm not hungry now, but I want some beans & cornbread later." 

She laughed again. "Huh! Naw, Jim's here 24-7 and if he had another store, he'd have to be there 24-7 and he couldn't be at both 24-7 so this is the only one." 

"Oh."

"Cracker Barrel took this idea, but they have a chain 'cause they don't have to stay there 24-7. Jim can't do a chain 'cause he does."

The hills gave way to flatlands and past the Mississippi, geometry took over with plowed fields, lines of trees, lines of trucks, lines of cracks 

in the asphault and the sound of

our journey is ka Thump kaTHUMP

kaTHUMP kaTHUMP FWUMP 

(pothole) kaTHUMP kaTHUMP.

we stop at various dedicated rest stops-

Johnny Cash, Music Highway,

and in Oklahoma, one dedicated to

a devoted transportation employee.

If you can't make it to Grand Old Opry or Cash's home, visit the rest 

stop and play a song on your guitar.

Another rest stop sported a lovely 

creek gurgling over stones in a shady grove.  

It moved El Comanchero to meditation

and Miss. Clementine to collapse.