Moving to Alaska: Day Two

I awoke feeling MUCH better about the load I was towing but still will wonder if it is too much until I get over the mountains. But nothing I can do about it at this point (or later really, since I will already be there before I know anything). On today's drive I did a few touristy things. One is to visit the grave of the longest lived Confederate veteran of the Civil War, who passed away in 1951. 

I also went to the Natural Bridge in Alabama, which is the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies. I have seen a few of these before but this one is pretty impressive. I made a short visit to the birthplace of the King in Tupelo (though only the outside items; I couldn't bring myself to buy a ticket just to look inside a couple small buildings). And for the literary folks, I made stops at the home and grave of William Faulkner. What is of note with Faulkner's grave is that he drank whiskey and people apparently take a bottle to the grave and do a shot with him then just leave the bottle. However, no shots for me since I didn't have any and none were waiting for me. Of course, a lot of this driving around was in an attempt to find my tenth letterbox in Mississippi (and I failed). For some reason I have decided I don't just want on per state, I want double digits. So I guess I have to come back here and go south next time as that is where most of them are hidden.

Anyway, after that I sped on to Memphis to plant a letterbox in a cemetery. I was in a hurry because it was getting dark and best case, most cemeteries close at dusk. Low and behold, this one was open until 10pm!!! Had I known I would have not worried. I highly recommend you visit Memorial Park Cemetery and find the Crystal Grotto. It alone is worth visiting the cemetery (and what drew me here).

I also stopped to go grocery shopping. I know, you are thinking "really, he has to talk about that in this blog?!?" but there is a reason. When I came out I actually checked the chains on the trailer which I have been pretty good about doing every morning but since I knew I had hit a few low spots near the end of the day, wanted to check again. And what I noticed about made me cry. The cable that powers the lights on the trailer had come unplugged and the actual plug was melted from road friction and unusable!!!

So in my head I am thinking "Hell no I am not reloading this trailer, you will just cut the end of the cable off and attach a new connector" but then I realized it was a jumper cable, maybe 4 foot, so I just needed to replace the jumper and I would have lights again.

So for the first full day the cat did fine, mostly slept in the backseat and I got my butt kicked letterboxing; that is the down side to hunting in a place with no real active people and older boxes.

Start: Oxford, Alabama

Stop: Memphis, Tennessee

~430 Miles Driven

~5.4 Miles Walked
6 Letterboxes Found

6 Letterboxes Not Found

3 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos