Tennessee whiskey

Jack Daniels was my flavor tonight, at least between some familiar flavors and some I'd not yet tasted. I won't pretend that I'm sober and blabbering on about the contents of today's rather scattered schedule (but I'm still anal about spelling and grammar, so I can't be too bad off!), so you'll just have to grin and bear my ramblings.

I love soul music, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't know too much about it's history. Otis Redding has been one of my favorite musicians since the first time I heard his side of the Monterey Pop Festival LP (with Jimi Hendrix on the the opposite side), but I never did my homework about his humble beginnings or the musicians he surrounded himself with. In fact, I really have no knowledge about the history of soul music. Bill, however, knows a lot about it, and in a lot of ways had been on his way here for most of his life. After many failed attempts to get to Memphis, he finally made it here with his nephew, someone he cultivated an interest in music within. It's probably because of this fact that I just said "Yeah, we can do whatever you want" whenever he asked me if I wanted to do something.

First stop was Beale street, which Bill explained used to be a black neighborhood full of music and culture. Today it's a caricature of itself, full of several shops selling the same "authentic" merchandise, and restaurants selling the same menus - a four block span of safe dumbed down touristy and corporate attempts at authenticity. We continued walking for about a mile until we reached Sun Studios. Bill wasted no time signing us up for the tour and we were soon regaled with a somewhat over the top, but ultimately really informative history lesson on the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and so many others. It was a really great tour and I'd love to go back and experience it again after some personal research.

After a long walk home, we grabbed the car and headed to Elvis's final resting place, Graceland despite both of us still reeling from yesterday's ridiculous drive. We were too late to get any tours so we took some pictures and headed back.

On the way back to the hotel we took a detour and stopped by Stax Records for some more photos, since they had  also already closed up for the day. Stax records was an important establishment in the early days of soul music, especially for black musicians as the majority of the music industry was dominated by white artists. Stax gave black musicians a face, and eventually a voice as society began to be a little more open minded. I have a lot to research about Stax, but this is what I've gathered in an afternoon. Color me ignorant. We took some pictures and split.

We came back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit, before heading out for some dinner and drinks. Now we're back at the hotel.

It looks like tonight was the last hurrah for this trip. We'll be heading east from here, likely with one night spent in a city or town between here and Richmond, but for all intents and purposes, Memphis was the last place either of us wanted to visit on this trip. It's been an interesting trip, I'd imagine for both of us. It's not easy to jump in a car with a person you've never spent more than a few hours at a time with, but I think we did a pretty good job of having fun with each other, and showing each other new things. I'm glad that I got to know my uncle better, and I'm glad that he got to know me. I may or may not make another post after this, so in case I don't, thank you for reading. I hope it's been as fun to follow us as it's been to write about it.

By the way, more pics are up on the Nipper post as well as the Flickr page (a handful that I didn't use for the blog). Check them out and we hope you enjoy them!

Memphis is for drivers

It is my extreme pleasure to announce that we arrived in Memphis after driving for 16 hours through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and about a mile of Tennessee. Both of us were pretty wrecked when we got in so neither of us were up for the challenge of writing. There wasn't much to write on anyway, as the most exciting thing that happened was getting BBQ in Texas.

We're in Memphis for the rest of the day, and into the morning so expect an update tonight complete with pictures and stories of our exploits. First thing on my list - Jack Daniels. We're in whiskey country!

Meteors, Dinosaurs, Casinos and Pizza

Greetings from Albuquerque, New Mexico! We arrived in town a few hours ago after about 6 hours of driving. We were destined to end up here, but hadn't considered the possibilities along the way. At some point along the way we started seeing signs for Meteor Crater, and I, being something of a closet sci-fi nerd, immediately perked up at the sight of it, my mind running wild. Bill obviously recognized my interest and suggested we stop. 

Several miles down a rather barren road, a hill rises in the distance. It's not too out of the ordinary considering the landscapes that surround and inhabit Arizona. The only difference is that instead of a hill top, this one has a gigantic crater that is over 3 miles in circumference, and 5,000 feet wide. From the viewing decks, it almost looks like a miniature Grand Canyon. We brought out Nipper for a quick photo op, and we got back on the road.

"Who is this Nipper?", you ask? Well allow me to introduce you. Nipper is a lifesize statue of the RCA Records dog, leaning over to hear the record player. Well, Bill brought him along to be our gnome, photographed in all the typical tourist spots. See the post below this for a few examples of Nipper's photos.

Several hours later, we rolled into Albuquerque. Along the way here, we were lucky enough to take in the sights of Indian casinos and plenty of dinosaur sculptures (including one with 2 heads!). We're taking it easy tonight with a pizza dinner and television. We're about to go to bed, and it's only 8pm. That's unheard of for me, but we're heading towards Memphis, TN tomorrow, and it's over 1000 miles away. Wish us luck!

P.S. We finally uploaded photos (as you might have guessed), but I'm only posting a few here and there until I figure out how to use this site. To see all of the pictures we've put online, CLICK HERE!

Nipper

- Nipper at Sun Studios

-Nipper looking over the wall at Graceland

- Nipper at Meteor Crater, AZ

- Nipper at The Grand Canyon

- Nipper on route 66 (with Bill)

Bill's Birthday

Today has been a day of many adventures. Leaving Kingman, Arizona, we had heard tales of the next city on route 66, a town by the name of Seligman. We were sort of amazed at the rather shabby, downtrodden nature of Kingman, so hearing the residents of this town speak somewhat highly of it, we were eager to see what was awaiting us. A few crash course laps of stickshift driving in the motel parking lot, and we were off. 

We started the day at Denny's where I had a delicious bacon and avocado breakfast burrito and Bill had the Grand Slam. We spent a healthy amount of time writing postcards, myself endlessly amused by the stockpiles of really old and cheesy ones I'd picked up in Kingman (by the way, if you are reading this, and want a postcard email me at brandonpeck@gmail.com with your address and I will send one to you. I have like 30 more). Bill drove to Seligman, and it might be the most depressing place I've seen so far. Totally run down, seemingly only about 4 blocks long, and most of the stores were closed up or long gone. 

I took over driving and we hopped back onto I-40 from 66 and headed east. The drive up 64 towards the Grand Canyon was really pretty, and Bill told me about a virus called Sudden Oak that has been killing a lot of Oak trees in the US lately. I couldn't help think about how good of a band name that would be as we passed by hundreds of trees that seemed to have been choked to death. The snow had sort of crept into the scenery from the point we'd left Kingman, but by now it was almost a foot deep on both sides, and by the time we hit the Canyon, it was everywhere. We have a lot of great pics from the trip today, but we still haven't gotten a cord to put them on the computer yet. Tomorrow, I promise!

We did our thing for a short while, myself revisiting my trip on CBR two years ago, and drove around the park for a bit before heading off in pursuit of Flagstaff. We got into town about 6pm and went out looking for music stores. Bill and I went record shopping, then got a few drinks in honor of his birth, and then dinner (he wasn't too excited about his food, but I was very pleased). Afterwards, we went to what appeared to be an Irish pub with pool tables, but ended up being a college bar full of obnoxious d-bags (sorry mom!). Richmond friends, picture Tiki Bobs, but worse. A few games to prove how awful I am at the sport and we decided to call it a night. 

Tomorrow we set off to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it looks like it will be a looooong drive, so I'm off to bed. Pictures tomorrow!

2 days late

So, it's a late start in terms of cataloging our adventures thus far, but better late than never, I suppose.

I figured I would start at the beginning for two reasons, the first being that I'd like to consider myself thorough, the second being that I tend to be long winded, so why bother trying to summarize.

I left Richmond on Tuesday afternoon, and despite running late, made it to my plane in time. Many thanks to Ms. Lucy Williams for the swift ride to the airport. After sitting at my gate for 20 minutes listening to a pack of business people rattle on about inner office drama I finally boarded my flight to Dallas / Fort Worth. We were late taking off so I missed my connecting flight to Los Angeles, and was forced to take a later flight. That flight took off late as well due to the copilot showing up an hour late, and I spent most of the flight watching NBC sitcoms next to a guy who kept coughing like a muppet. When we landed I was informed that there were no more flights to Monterey and was given a hotel room. My first (and only) night in L.A. was spent drinking a few beers at the hotel bar and watching HBO until I fell asleep.

Wednesday morning, I met up with my friends Michelle and Ian, who took me to breakfast at IHOP, and then quickly back to the airport. I caught a short flight to Monterey, and met up with my uncle, Bill. He took me for a tour of Monterey including his former place of employment, Cannery Row, the Monterey Fairgrounds (where the legendary Pop Festival took place), as well as a really scenic route around the coast. I kept looking for sea lions, but none were to be seen. Shortly thereafter, he made his peace with his now former home, and we took off.

The first part of our trip route took us down the Pacific Coast Highway, weaving around rocky cliffs with the ocean to our right for several hours. It was a pretty amazing drive, and I really wish I'd taken some pictures. We made a few stops along the way to look for these gigantic birds called Condors, as well as to stop and look at a waterfall. Eventually, as the sun began its descent, we turned eastward and headed towards Bakersfield. 

I didn't make too many plans for this trip, as I'm sort of just along for the ride, and entirely grateful to be given the opportunity to take part in it, but I did want to find a delicious burrito. That was crossed off the list while en route to Bakersfield. We stopped at a little mobile food truck on the side of the highway that had a sign proudly proclaiming "BURRITOS". A semi truck pulled off ahead of us as we passed by and Bill asked me if I wanted to stop. I was skeptical, but he told me the rule was that if a truck driver is stopping for it, it must be good. It was. Eventually we stopped in Bakersfield for the night, just in time for me to catch the new episode of LOST.

That brings us to today, Thursday, February 12th. As I type this, I am sitting in a Motel 6 in Kingman, Arizona. The guy at the gas station here wasn't very friendly and explained that this town has a big meth problem - hope the car is still here in the morning! We've passed through some beautiful mountains and deserts today, and we're one time zone closer to home. We finally broke out the camera and took a few pictures once we got on historic route 66. We'll be following 66 for much of this trip, pretty much all the way to Memphis, and I'm pretty excited about all the touristy silly souvenirs we'll find. I still haven't found a tumbleweed small enough to fit in the car, but I haven't given up hope.

Tomorrow is Bill's birthday. I'm learning to drive stick shift tomorrow so we can start splitting the drive (Yeah, I know that it's pathetic that I don't  know how yet). It's also the day that we get to the Grand Canyon, which may be the coolest part of the trip, so it's fitting that they coincide, i think. I'll be uploading pictures tomorrow, and likely updating this blog each day as we end our drives and get some rest. Stay tuned!