Desert Bighorn at Deep Canyon

I stalked this guy along a wash at the base of of rocky ridge – I dropped my camera bag and took off my boots as I got close to sneak up without making any sound, but then he climbed up a little outcrop and took a good long look at me from just overhead.


More of the same flock, grazing on the shrubs.


Mother and child, shot the previous day, in the shadow of the mountain.

Dogpile

Thanksgiving morning - Maggie climbed on the bed and kept trying to sneak a paw onto Anne. Anne didn't want Maggie lying on her right then, but Maggie kept trying. I got up to get the camera, and the situation soon devolved into this: all three little dogs climbing onto Anne, and Bodie doing his best to join the crowd.

Shortly after Ben showed up and climbed in, Anne having succumbed to the inevitable.

The Three Stooges Do America

This journey has been marked by slapstick from the very first day. Will pulled the RV up our driveway to begin loading a year’s worth of clothes and books and dishes and bedding from the garage. I went into the house to talk with Laney, who was going to be renting our house for the year. After Will moved in a few loads he decided to make the bed. Suddenly he felt a lurch and the RV began rolling back down the driveway. He raced to the front of the RV and pulled on the brake just as it was rolling into the street.

I looked out the living room window as the RV began to roll by and idly wondered why Will was moving it. Was it not close enough to the garage? Why didn’t he ask for my help in reversing? I wandered outside and saw Will gripping the wheel tightly, eyes wide. That was the last time he forgot to put it into gear when parking.

Bodie, of course, has been the source of much of our slapstick. Every time we go for a walk he manages to wrap himself around someone. Once he pulled me straight out of the RV, missing all three steps, when he was in a hurry to get outside. Ben is wakened most mornings by Bodie landing on the bed next to him and then flopping his head – as big as Ben’s own – onto Ben's chest. Bodie sleeps at the foot of our bed and when I have to get up during the night, which I invariably do at least once, I have to step over him. This startles him, even when I try to warn him I’m coming, and he jumps up and runs toward the kitchen. But he jumps up between my legs, and he is tall, so I end up riding Bodie halfway down the hallway most nights.

The most recent incident (besides the nightly Bodie rides) was in New Orleans. Ben needed to get something from the car after dark, so he grabbed a flashlight and headed out the door. We heard a crash and Ben started yelling for us. Will and I jumped out of the bed – luckily Bodie had already headed for the door – and ran to see what had happened. Ben was rolling on the ground, holding on to his leg. I saw that the RV steps had not come down, which they should do automatically when the door opens.

I jumped down from the doorway and knelt next to Ben. I felt his legs and arms and decided quickly that he had not broken anything. As I pulled him up, my bare feet began to burn horribly and I realized that I had stepped into a fire ant nest. I hopped from foot to foot as I pulled him inside. In the RV, Will cleaned his wounds and plastered him with band-aids. I tried to help, but kept yelping as I discovered more fire ants crawling on my feet, continuing to bite. Almost a week later, I still have a dozen blisters on my feet that itch constantly.

Are you wondering why Ben didn’t notice that the stairs were missing? Particularly as he was carrying a flashlight? I wondered that too. I asked him why he hadn’t used the flashlight to see the stairs, or lack of stairs in this case. He said that he wasn’t looking at the stairs because he was looking around for (I’m not making this up) “rabid squirrels and grenades”.

Ben's Three Questions

Tonight we pulled into an RV park just off the I10 north of Houston. We are aiming for Waco tomorrow, so we haven't unhitched the minivan or unpacked much at all. After we pulled in, Will and Ben walked the dogs and then took a spin in a paddleboat on the pond next to our RV site. I got on the internet right away, checking our route since our GPS stopped functioning in New Orleans, and looking at weather reports. There is a storm headed our way, so Will decided to empty the tanks before dinner.
Busy night. I asked Ben to prepare dinner, because I was still trying out a few alternate routes on Google maps.
"Ben, will you please open a can of corn and a can of green beans?"
Question #1: "OK. Do we have a can opener?"
"Um, what? You've been living in this RV for four months. Do you think we'd be here without a can opener?"
"Oh right. Never mind."
Ben begins opening the can of beans. Question #2: "So what are these for anyway?"
"What are the beans and corn for? Really? Well, the dogs aren't going to eat them, and it's almost dinner time. What do you think?"
"Oh yeah. Never mind."
I asked Ben to put the beans and corn into bowls and microwave them, and to heat up a bowl of leftover pasta bolognese.
Question #3: "So, is this all we're eating tonight - canned food and leftovers?"
Still haven't quite figured out how to answer that one...

Target Practice

On Friday, me and mom’s friend Brian went to a firing range in west Virginia, a new state for me! The entire experience was very exciting to me, since I had never shot a real gun before in my life. I enjoyed myself very much and every single part of it was exciting to me. I would like to thank Brian for taking me and teaching me how to shoot the different guns. Even the trip to the firing range was exciting, especially the end, with the terrifyingly curvy roads. Once again, thank you very much Brian.



We left around 9 o’clock and were immediately on the road, with a good breakfast of mini wheats in my stomach. We were short on some of our different kinds of ammo and I had no sound-blocking earmuffs, so we stopped at a Wal-mart to pick up said equipment. We arrived in the sporting goods section to find that their ammo cases were dry of the 30-30 bullets that we so craved. We left the store empty-handed and vowed vengeance as we left. Our next encounter with a Wal-mart would hopefully be more successful than the last.
And it was. We picked up ammo, sound-blocking goggles, and some extra targets for good measure, then were back on the road, sun blazing on our backs. Brian showed me some of his favorite music (and good music it was) as we drove through the beautiful state of Virginia. After a while of driving on highways, we hit a beautiful mountain road that twisted and turned. Soon we hit the west Virginia state line and 30 minutes later, we were in the firing range, unpacking our guns (only one other guy was there, and he had a beautiful muzzle-loading .50-caliber rifle)
We set up our targets, checked our guns and loaded clips. I was ready to take my first shot.



I sighted down my scope, aimed for the middle and took my shot. Up and to the left. This pattern continued, and I slowly corrected the lens. I put one of the green and black targets right on top of the other one ad took my first shot. Right through the middle. I finally had the rifle sighted in correctly. I finished the clip and set the rifle down. I tried some shots with the pistol, got some in the target.


After some time with the pistol and a few shots with the 30-30 rifle while Brian blew up some plastic targets with his revolver pistol. We finished up and packed up, put it all in the car and began the return home. On the way home, we saw an awesome swarm of bats fly overhead. We got some very late lunch and came home. I enjoyed my time on the firing range with Brian and when we see Brian again, I would love to do this again. When we got home, mom and will were at a party, so we chilled awhile.

The High Water Mark

Yesterday, Will and I went and visited the battle of Gettysburg. It was a very interesting and strategically important battle due to the fact that Lee committed so much of his forces to a daring attack, which was called Pickett’s charge. Some people believe that if this attack had succeeded, and Lee’s army had broken through the line, then it could have been a completely different war. That is why people call this spot the high water mark of the Confederacy. And, while that may be the namesake for my story, that is not all that happened at Gettysburg that day.


The view the Iron Brigade saw as the Confederates advanced toward them. (The barn on the right was present during this battle)

On the first day, a single Union cavalry brigade arrived in Gettysburg, scouting out for the Confederate forces that had been following the Union army on the other side of a mountain range. Soon enough, on the day after they had deployed, Confederate forces began to stream in from Chambersburg. After some intense fighting, the unions reinforcements, the iron brigade, finally arrived. The iron brigade were some of the Unions crack troops. They were allowed to wear their own special hats as opposed to the regular ones that the regular Union foot troops would wear.

On Little Round Top, looking toward the Confederate assault on the second day on the left flank of the Union army.

On the second day, both full armies arrived and set up. The Union had their forces set up in a fishhook, with their right flank, facing north, being the tip and their left flank, facing south, would be tied to the line. The Confederacy, meanwhile, made a line that matched theirs, but instead of having the valuable hill cover that the Union had gotten, they had occupied Gettysburg as the center of their fishhook. That day, Lee ordered General Ewell to begin to attack the Union right, while General Longstreet attacked the Union left, battling them on the round tops.

The stone wall Confederate troops stormed over, led by General Armistead, and held briefly at the apex of Pickett's charge.

After these attacks had failed, General Lee decided to attack the Union center, after the Union army had reinforced both of their flanks. He sent in general Pickett, with 12,000 men on a mile-wide attack to the Union center. The Union defenders were only 7,000 strong, but they had the advantage of being able to fire their guns more than once, because the Confederates were on the charge, so they couldn’t after some intense fighting, the confederates finally broke through, but within minutes, they were pushed back out of the union line. This was a devastating blow to Lee’s army.

The Custer memorial, at the East Cavalry Field, a rarely visited but significant cavalry battle on the final day at Gettysburg.

The overall outcome of the battle was the end of Lee’s second campaign. Many believe that the battle of Gettysburg was one of the many deciding factors of the civil war. This is so because Lee’s massive army of northern Virginia had gotten considerably mauled during the battle of Gettysburg. Today was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed learning more about this battle and finally getting to see the battle for myself. I had heard so much about it, but I couldn’t have imagined just how awesome the real experience of being there was. Thanks so much Will!

At the Engens

We spent the evening with Heather and Dwight, as well as Danny and his wife Amy. We had Heather's Macaroni and Cheese, and lots of conversation while Ben and the kids did various things with Lego and more.

New York City without my boys

I took the train from Washington DC to New York City this afternoon. The boys dropped me off at Union Station and then went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was fun to be in the car with Ben as he saw the Lincoln Memorial for the first time, then the Washington Memorial, the Federal Reserve, the Capital Building and so on as we made our way to the train station. We will be visiting all of these places next week, when we are staying with a friend in Arlington, closer to the city than the campsite we are in right now.

Now we are over 30 miles outside the city, in Manassas. Yes, a significant Civil War site, in case you are wondering.

To be accurate, the *boys* are 30 miles outside the city. I am in the heart of Manhattan, at Le Parker Meridien. "Just steps away from Central Park, MOMA,Carnegie Hall, Broadway theaters and Fifth Avenue's famous shops." Not that I'll get to see any of that, because this is a working weekend.

I'm in a room bigger than the entire RV, with a huge bed and plasma TV and mini-bar and a big desk to spread my work out on (luxury!). But the best thing is...a big bathtub!

It has been way too long since I had a chance to soak. Since we left Mom and Dad's farm over a month ago, actually. Hydrotherapy! No need for counseling or drugs or meditation or yoga if I can just have a long, hot soak in a tub or hot tub on a regular basis. Really.

When I got in, I picked up Thai take-away next door, then unpacked and checked in with Abi (who is a bit sick) and the boys in their Man Cave. Hopefully they will write about their experiences in the Man Cave, as they are calling the RV in my absence, at a later time.

Screen-grab from my Skype conversation with the boys in the Man Cave

After I ate, I had a verrrry long bath and now I am sprawled out on the bed - so much for the terrific desk - doing some last minute reading for my meetings tomorrow and Sunday.

It is very luxurious and spacious and clean. I can't see a dog hair ANYWHERE. Although I probably could if I looked at my clothes carefully.

But I miss my dirty, loud boys and dogs. And I have been missing Abi so ferociously that it is a physical sensation. I guess I'll grab some whiskey from the mini-bar and drown my sorrows. Here's looking at you, kid.

Battle of Chickamauga

Monument in someone's yard near the gas station.

Ben approaching a stream where Bedford Forrest almost captured a Union general.

Yesterday Will and I went and saw the battle of Chickamauga. On the way there, after we had stopped at Arbys and gotten some drinks, we were stopping at a gas station to get some gas when we noticed a few signs and memorials in somebody’s front lawn. We spent a while of viewing some of the actions on one of the flanks, in which General Forrest (Forrest Gump was named after), was going to capture a union general, but one of his aides warned him just in time. This was a very interesting part of the battle. Also, Forrest took it from the enemy with force.

Vinyard field, site of bloody fighting on the first day of battle, with Confederates attacking through the trees on the left toward Union positions on the right.

We continued along to the museum, viewed multiple different exhibits that were all very interesting, including one which had a very informative, light-up map of the entire battle, which I believe that all battlefields should have. The museum also had one of the largest collections of civil-war period guns. Will and me happily viewed this before watching a very interesting, fun and informative movie about this specific battlefield, which will and I were about to explore.
The way that this battle went is that the union was defeating the confederates in the campaign for Chattanooga, and was advancing in three separate columns due to the terrain in the local area. Bragg saw this and took advantage of it, deciding to ambush one of the supply trains that was moving through the area. But he did not react to this advantageous position fast enough and by the time that he reached them, the union army had already regrouped and was in battle positions. He attacked on the morning of September 19th, with the intention to make a sweeping attack from the union left to right, but the attack on the left failed, so he instead elected to attack piecemeal.

Ben where General Helm, Lincoln's brother-in-law was mortally wounded, leading an assault on the second day on the Union left.

On the second day, his orders arrived late to a portion of the army, so the entire army attacked late due to that portion of the army. While they were supposed to attack at seven, they had only attacked by ten o’clock that morning! The confederacy had been attacking for about two hours before the union general made a critical mistake with his army and told one of his generals to move in to fill a gap which actually did not exist, and when he came in, he actually created his own hole in the line!

The post-war Brotherton house, where the Confederates stormed through a gap in the Union line.

The confederacy charged in there, and it all got worse for the union from there, with their whole army making a slow retreat back to Chattanooga. One of the most famous defense actions in this battle was called Snodgrass hill, and it was an obvious strongpoint that the retreating union took advantage of to cover their retreating friends. Another one was a unit of mounted infantry, which guarded the whole armies headquarters, taking advantage of the extra firepower afforded to them due to their new repeating carbines. This battle overall was a very interesting full of bravery and good sport.

The left side of Snodgrass Hill, where the Union rearguard under General "Pap" Thomas shielded the fleeing federal army.

When the Levee Breaks

Been having fun learning about just how much the blues and rock are intermingled. Not something I was aware of as a teenager.

This is the original version of the song, with some great vintage photography in the video.




And of course...

Chilling in Chattanooga

This will be a brief post. We all have some awful virus; I think it's the flu because we are so achy and feverish. Will got it first - he says he got it from the Dalai Lama (we saw him speak on Wednesday). Then I got it, then Ben got it. Happily the dogs are all fine. Imagine how bad THAT would be if we had an RV full of sick dogs.

We are all lying about and when we speak it's hard to understand because we are so raspy and congested. Plus we keep making old man noises; groaning every time we stand or roll over or move much at all. We've gotten through most of a bottle of Nyquil, to little effect.

Ben has not yet learned how to swallow pills so I have to keep soaking ibuprofen in juice and mashing it up for him. Ibuprofen is MUCH harder to mash up than aspirin or Tylenol! Has anyone else noticed this? And then he complains because it tastes bad.

It was a real trudge driving from Shiloh to Chattanooga yesterday feeling like this. But I figured it would be good to be closer to drug stores and doctors' offices, etc, if this bug gets much worse. Plus Will's two sisters who live here are both nurses. Bonus. It's hard waiting to see everybody, but I'm sure we are still infectious.

Today Will and I made it out to the grocery store and stocked up on food, and bought a bunch of cheap movies. We are going to have tomato soup and garlic bread, and watch Forrest Gump and then maybe Terminator 3 or Stand By Me.

Here's a funny story about soup and then I'm off to watch the movie. When Abi was about six or seven years old, she came home from a friend's house very excited.

"Mommy, I had the BEST tomato soup! Can we please have some like it?"

I always made them homemade soup from scratch. The kids had not liked my last batch of tomato soup, made with tomatoes from our garden. So I was interested to hear how her friend's family made it differently.

"Sure Abi, what was the tomato soup like?"

"It had a name, Mommy, they called it CAMP-bells. CAMP-bells tomato soup. Could we have some CAMP-bells?"

Sun Studio

Sun studio was the birthplace of rock and roll, and I got to stand in the spot where Rocket ’88, commonly thought to have been the first rock and roll song, was recorded in 1951 and was only a rock song due to the fact that the bands amp had broken on the way there, and they fixed it with scraps of newspaper, giving it the distortion sound famous to rock and roll. I also stood in the spot were Elvis recorded the ten songs that he produced under the sun studio label. Lots of other famous bands have recorded in here.

The studio, at Sun Studio

The first time we went, I didn’t really realize the full scope and scale of the room which I was standing in. Little did I realize that Elvis, U2, Def Leppard, Howlin’ wolf, even the million dollar quartet, all recorded in that room. It was still very enlightening to see the area in which so much had started in, but I didn’t really realize it until the second time that we came (due to Bodie eating poor will’s camera data chip, we went again, because will absolutely needed to get those pictures, so we decided to go again). But luckily, the second trip paid off, as will met some very nice people who then gave him two tickets to see the Dali Lama.

They had lots of cool things belonging to Elvis, including coat, his guitar, the rest of his bands instruments, his original song that he played, and his first TV broadcasting ever. They also had a very interesting timeline of the history of the studio, shown in record cases and starting with Sam Phillips working for a small pop music radio station. But Sam Phillips, he was not happy, so he gathered up enough money and made his own recording studio (with the help of Marion Keisker). At first, to pay the bills, he used mobile recording equipment to record things such as marriages, weddings and funerals.

Elvis on his first TV appearance, with the clothes on display that he wore and other memorabilia, including the guitar.

But this was not what he really wanted to record. He wanted to record blues and other types of music. He got his chance when his first band walked in and wanted to record a song. He happily obliged and recorded their album before sending it off to major producers to mass produce it. The only problem with this is that the companies used their own label, so he was not getting any publicity for all of the records that he was now recording. He later decided to begin producing his own labels and records, so that he could gain publicity.

Sam Phillips

Soon he was realizing stars, like Howling wolf and Elvis. Although, the funny thing is that the first time that he heard Elvis, he was not impressed. But Elvis was originally recognized by Marion Keisker, who continually attempted to make Sam see the light. In about one year, Sam finally gave in and tried him out with some other musicians who he had on hand. After a night of Sam not being impressed, Elvis was just playing around and singing a blues song that he knew when his new band joined in and Sam was finally enlightened to the style that Elvis was best on. The next day, Elvis was invited back to play another song.

Marion Keisker

So much history had happened in that room, that they later bought the room next door after Sam Phillips moved the location of the recording area to one block over. They used it as both a small museum and as starting area for the tours that go through it. I absolutely loved my time there and was very enlightened.

Finding Elvis

We went to Graceland a week ago, and after that we toured Sun Studio, where Elvis began recording; the first steps on the yellow brick road that ends at his grave in Graceland.

I saw his clothes, his guitar, his couch, his pool table, even his social security card. I stood where he recorded his first song, then his first hit record. I saw things directly linked to him, and things indirectly linked to him.

Artifacts, every one of them, of a presence passed. Holy relics of a compromised god, a man gripped in our minds as much by the beauty and spirituality of his music as the garish indulgence of of his potent sensuality.

And of course the split is in our own minds. Did Elvis consider himself sundered, into young Elvis/Fat Elvis. Or Elvis Before the Army, and Elvis After the Army? Or was he just Elvis to himself, always Elvis, nothing more, and nothing less?

So why then do we go to Graceland? And what do we do when we get there? Graceland holds no Ferris wheels, no roller coasters. This is no theme park. Graceland is but a museum and a graveyard.

People pass solemnly through Graceland. You sense respect for the man who died there, and almost an awestruck sense of privilege, getting to walk were he so often walked. and yet why are they here? They share stories about what Elvis meant in their own lives, songs they liked, and more. Some send tributes to Graceland, these floral arrangements and other memorials are displayed near the grave sites, on the way back to the shuttle that returns you across Elvis Presley Boulevard to the entrance and parking lot, the restaurants and themed mini-museums of Elvis.

As we were leaving I casually noticed some fans had written on the wall in front of Graceland.

After a week, I wanted to go back to Graceland. I thought there would be a good opportunity for some people pictures, and maybe a shot of that front wall. I hesitated, but eventually drove back, intending to take a few pictures, traveling alone on this rare occasion.

I went past the parking area, not wanting to pay ten dollars to get out for few pictures. Of course, I couldn't park close for free, so I turned into a residential area. They had "No Parking" signs up for the first block. Then I could park, but it seemed wrong, somehow, to leave my car out in front of someone's house on what felt like false pretenses. I drove back and forth, restlessly, several times in front of Graceland, up and down side streets. Aimless, it seemed. Looking for something.

I finally parked in front of some souvenir stores, and began to walk down the sidewalk toward Graceland, toward the wall.

And then I started to see things. Things that shouldn't have been there. Names that had been written in drying cement after recent renovations, names and dates scrawled on lamp posts - Little tributes to Elvis, and thank yous. Things written where, reasonably, you wouldn't expect anyone to read them.

Along the route.

These weren't boastful loud graffiti slashings, but simple, small handwritten tokens of passage. "I was here." Often just a name and a date. A marker, a quiet marker. And as I neared Graceland they grew thicker in the signs and posts and sidewalks along the way..

And when I reached the wall I saw them everywhere. Even on top of each other.

Walk that wall.

From one end to another it bears name after name, who they are, and when they came here. Dates and names. And with some there is often a personal message.


This isn't on the tour. It's not clean, carefully laid out behind tasteful ropes and shielded by Plexiglas. It's right out there, right on the road, where anyone can see it it, touch it, alter it.

People write on the bricks, the concrete, not so much as to be read, but simply for the act of doing it.



You stand in front of the wall, the ground still damp from the ever present rain, and look at the names, stretching out on either side of you until they can no longer be read. You stand in the center of a community, soulmates for the frozen moment. Even alone you are joined by the thousands who have written here before, and writers whose marks are yet to come.

Cars pass by heedless on the road behind you, as you feel the presence of these other pilgrims, these seeking souls who came to Graceland, and found.

Foodie Post II for Memphis

We are about to head out to Shiloh National Battleground, about 120 miles from Memphis. A few days there then on to Chattanooga, where the boys will visit Chickamauga Battleground, we will see some of Will's family (I'm so excited!) and we'll do some chores that are easier to do in a big city - visit a Camping World, got to Costco, get haircuts, etc.

Memphis has been a wonderful surprise to us, in matters of the spirit and of the flesh. I will return to the former in another post, and focus here on the latter. Specifically on matters of animal flesh, barbecued or deep fried.

As I said in my last post, I did some research on our best eating options in Memphis after my friend Don said that my priority when visiting should be eating as much barbecue as possible. We are trying to stay on budget, so we've been pretty good about keeping in groceries and cooking in the RV. This strategy feel apart in the face of Memphis barbecue.

Here is a partial list of the "must visit" barbecue spots in Memphis, culled from Chowhound posts (I don't know if I mentioned this is the ultimate foodie resource on the web), reviews and friends' recommendations:
Payne's, Central BBQ, Cozy Corner, The BBQ Place, Neely's, Rendezvous, Gilsby's, Tom's, Interstate, Corky's.

After we ate at Payne's, we decided that we could go a little into debt to investigate Memphis barbecue more thoroughly. Our plan was to hit as many of the list above as possible while in Memphis.

The first place we tried, after Payne's, was Cozy Corner. Will and Ben were going into town to visit the Mississippi River Museum, so I asked them to pick up Cozy Corner ribs on their way home, since it was close.

They brought home a big paper bag, full of ribs and half a loaf of white bread. You get that at some BBQ places in Kansas City too. I guess it's to sop up the extra Q sauce, but I'm not a big fan of it. Why would I fill up on Wonder bread when I've got ribs in front of me?

Will and Ben were gushing about Cozy Corner. They said it was a bit run down but nothing like Payne's, and it felt like a real family place. Two boys - maybe 11 and 17 years old - were working the front counter and cash register. Their little sister, about 5 years old, took a liking to Ben and grabbed his hands to get him to dance with her.

We bit into the ribs and stopped and stared at each other. There are no words. I have never tasted anything like that in my life. They were the ultimate food.

On Sunday Will and I picked up ribs at Central BBQ after going to Al Green's church (service was from 11 to 2:45!). Central is in a very nice part of Memphis, with some of the biggest homes I've ever seen. The clientele looked like they had a lot more money too, and the waiters looked like college kids. The ribs were fantastic, but tasted a little over-smoked to me. The flesh was bright pink and it was almost like eating ham in Q sauce instead of ribs. I guess I've been ruined forever by Cozy Corner.

The next day Ben and Will went to Sun Studios (I was working on a chapter, as usual). They stopped off at Cozy Corner on their way home and IT WAS CLOSED. They are closed on Mondays. Gah. So they drove by Central and picked up more ribs. Which were again great, but not as great as Cozy Corner. So the next day Will and I picked up ribs at Cozy Corner. They were still the best ribs, but not quite as good as the first time. I don't THINK this is because I was tired of BBQ. I think it must just be really tricky to get everything exactly right.

In between all this ribs eating, we had breakfast at Miss Cordelia's on Mud Island. This is a very fancy part of town. It was odd to see new condos and nice cars and people jogging with baby strollers, after being in our part of Memphis for a week. Miss Cordelia's is an upscale grocery store with a little diner attached, kind of like a Bristol Farms but smaller and not a chain. They had several different kinds of goood coffee. Bliss. Ben and Will both had breakfast panini and I had a muffin stuffed with eggs and bacon. We bought some coffee and nice cheese and bread to bring back to the RV.

One final foodie report: Will and I went to Beale Street on Saturday night. An amazing experience, especially a street performer, a Mississippi Hills blues musician named Richard Johnston. We tried a Dyer's hamburger and fries there. The hamburger was a bit greasy but the fries were perfect. Dyer's advertises that they cook everything in 100 year old grease. Since they opened, they have strained their grease every night and added new as needed. When they moved to Beale Street a few years ago, they made a big deal out of bringing the grease along under police escort.

Bodie Sattva

Sun Studio, on Union Avenue in Memphis

In the RV, we use the term "Bodhisattva" to refer to one who shows or teaches the way to enlightenment, similar to the classical Buddhist definition.

Of course, being taught or shown the path to enlightenment is not always an easy thing. We look at any difficulty as being an opportunity for examining one's self, and learning how to handle desire and disappointment in life.

Now, when one thinks of disappointment and hardships in the RV, one naturally looks to the dogs.

And not just any dog.

No, there's one who hands out hard lessons in humility and facing ones own weaknesses, on an almost daily level.

Guess who?

Yup.

Here's a recent shot of him - it's not very good, but it shows the surroundings we have right now, where we walk the dogs.

That's him on the left, running full tilt through the water. Good boy, Bodie. Stupid dog.

He likes the water. He likes mud too. We have a huge mat outside for Bodie to lie on, to keep himself clean and comfortable. If he goes to the very end of his leash, he can actually lie in a patch of mud.

Guess what?

Bodie goes to the end of his leash.

He also dumps his food bowl on the ground so the food gets all wet and inedible (apparently) and then takes his bowl and chews on it. Bodie likes to chew things. We have a whole bunch of blankets in the RV that started out as blankets, but are now promoted to dog blankets. They have great gaps in them. Thank you Bodie.

Oh, and my bed that deflated, so that I sleep on plywood for fun parts of each night - we think Bodie might have helped with all that. He definitely helped get the extra feathers out of the duvet. He's been a great help to all of us in showing us our limitations, and how life should be lived, by a dog who is always in the moment. Very in the moment, usually soaking wet, covered in mud, and bouncing all over the place.

Which brings us to Sun Studio. This is the place where Elvis recorded his first song, where B.B. King and Howling Wolf and Ike Turner and Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins and so many more began their careers. The first ever rock and roll song was recorded in this room.

And that's all it is, just one room, with a control room in the back and an office in the front. All the music happened in this one spot. There's an X on the floor where Elvis sang "That's All Right Mama," his breakthrough song that won him a contract.

Our tour guide put on "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash, which was recorded right where we were standing. He paused it, then showed us how Cash had woven paper through the strings of the guitar to get the distinctive sound we could hear in that song, then passed the guitar to a gray haired man in the tour, passed him a pick and asked him to strum it so we could hear it. The man did, and as the guide turned the music back on, the impromptu guitarist played and sang along, as the rest of us joined in.

A beautiful, spontaneous moment. I got the shot, showing the man's hand a blur on the strings with people around him in the hallowed studio. I got other shots as well; shots of the studio, shots of Ben with a microphone Elvis probably used to record his songs here.

I reviewed them all in the camera, and was very pleased and excited to have them - I thought they were some of the most meaningful ones I'd taken in a few months, and certainly in Memphis.

I brought them home, delicately tucked away inside the camera's memory card. I took the card out; I had plans for those pictures.

But of course, Bodhisattva had a lesson for me about the differences between desire, plans, and and simple enjoyment of whatever life holds.

Good boy Bodie. Stupid dog.

Memphis

Towers along the Mississippi River near Beale Street

Thus far, my time camping in Memphis has been a blast. All of the tourist attractions are great fun and being in the birthplace of the blues has been a truly enlightening subject for my studies. I have started to take my placement exams to see which level of math I am going into (frown). But other than that, my time in memphis has been a nonstop blast to the past.

Mom, being a foodie, has been totally up on the food culture of Memphis, meaning that we have gone to tons of barbeque restaurants in the past six days. Gus’s fried chicken had great chicken tenders and great root beer too. The Cozy Corner had the best ribs I had ever eaten and was a very cozy corner as well. Today, we had central barbeque, which supposedly had the best ribs in Memphis, but in my opinion, they don’t even compare to cozy corners. I have learned a lot about what good barbeque really tastes like.

Though the living conditions of the RV have been steadily decreasing due to dogs, rain and king of the stupids liking to dump his food on the ground before eating it, my time in the RV is steadily becoming more and more fun. I am beginning to get used to the regular traditions of the RV and am beginning to get really into it. I only wish that I could have more time outside.

The Martin Luther King assassination site, at the Lorraine motel, as seen from the approximate location of the assassin.

On Friday, Will, Mom and I all hopped in the car and took off for the Civil Rights Museum. After the short drive to the museum, we hopped back out of the car to the view of a wreath hanging from the balcony of the Loraine hotel, the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. We slowly walked through the museum, taking a look at every exhibit. Across the street, in the building that Ray had shot Martin from, was another gallery, which we took the time to look at.

On Beale Street

Ben throws a right in a speakeasy brawl.

We went to another main attraction, Beale Street, the next day. Full of live performances, restaurants, bars and more, we did not have the time to tour the whole area, but we saw a good portion of it. Yesterday, Mom and Will went clubbing at night on Beale street. Due to age restrictions, I could not go with them.