The drive from Atlanta to Memphis could only be described as unpleasant. It didn’t help that I was cranky and irritable from lack of sleep, but as a special bonus, the roads were from hell and the drivers were pretty damned close to completely incompetent. Repeat these rules after me:
- We do not pass on the right, even when there are three lanes in our direction.
- It is unwise to tailgate when going 80MPH.
- The right lane is the slow lane. The left lane is the fast lane. We do not shift into the left lane and then slow down. This is not good.
A wreck forced me to make a 30-mile detour around Birmingham through some (admittedly pretty) country roads. Alabama has, in general, now replaced Ohio as my most unpleasant state so far. US 78 between Birmingham and Memphis should have been a freeway thirty years ago. And Birmingham itself is smoky, smelly, and generally ugly in a way even I was unable to appreciate.
The road through Mississippi was pretty good. I have no other real observations on the place, except to note that Tuplelo, birthplace of Elvis, is not readily apparent from the freeway which goes “through” it.
Memphis, my ultimate destination for the night, was seedy and fairly endearing in a decayed sort of way. Of course, the “Elvis factor” was in evidence everywhere, and I even stayed in a motel on Elvis Presley Boulevard, not far from Graceland. After the day’s drive, I didn’t poke around much, particularly after taking almost an hour finding a room. By the way, the drivers here are particularly inept…