April 16th Tuesday 9:30 p.m Kingsport Cracker Barrel Tennessee i-81
Long day. woke up around 5:30 a.m. in the Ouachita woods, and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I packed up and headed out.
uneventful drive out of the forest. aired up the tires with the air compressor mounted in my truck bed and headed off to civilization.
Not sure I ever mentioned that in the blog before. but on the back roads, I let about 50% of the air out of the tires. You have to drive slower (<= 25mph), but the half deflated tires eat up all the bumpy back roads much better. You don’t want to drive highway speeds with half-full tires though. They’d get really hot, get damaged or explode, the vehicle would not steer well at all, and you’d get horrible mileage.
Anyhoo, after a quick breakfast at the Lake Sylvia beach area, I got on route 10 east and followed that for about a half hour to i-40 east.
Little Rock traffic on i40 is not bad at all. The disconcerting rotational squeaking at slower speeds was still noticeable. Worst betwee 30-45mph. On the rt 10 drive I tried to find a self-service car wash, but they only had the automated or touchless ones. with the ski box on the truck, I’m too tall for those. So I stopped at a truck wash made for semi’s. It cost me $40, but they did a great job. 8 guys with pressure washer spray guns. I’d do it again tbh. Sadly though, the rotors are still squeaking. I think if it was a wheel bearing it’d be loud at highway speeds, so I’m guessing a small rock got in between a disc pad and a rotor. I’d guess the rear driver side. Vehicle brakes fine though, and you don’t hear anything at highway speeds.
Anyhoo, stopped at the big Bass Shop Pro pyramid in memphis. well worth a walk through if you’re ever in memphis. Got some good rain gear for ½ off from the clearance racks. My ratty, cheap Frogg Toggs rain gear for camping were worn out.
The pyramid is bigger than it looks in the photo.
There’s a hotel in there too, who knew? They have giant Spanish Moss trees (fake?) and even an area where they keep small alligators! Why? who knows? Maybe so they can threaten unruly kids with getting tossed into the alligator pit if they don’t behave!
After I killed enough time for my BBQ place to open, I got lunch at Bar B Q Stop in memphis;. so good. Tough choice between them and St Louis. Both are way better than anything I’ve ever made.
I went into the Bar BQ Stop place with my stainless steel take-a-way containers. I felt zero shame. I ordered a huge dinner, ate maybe half, and took the rest to my truck’s fridge for lunch/dinner another day.
Anyway, continuing east. never, EVER drive i40 through Nashville, take the i840 beltway around it. just do it. The time estimate signs lie. It is NEVER faster to go through Nashville via i-40 during the day. Only go into Nashville if you’re doing something in Nashville. the highway committee were drunk or high or both when they did the highway planning there.
through Nashville, i40 expands to 4 or 5 lanes and you’ll have to cross over at least 3 times in monstrously heavy, stop and go traffic. Sometimes to stay on i40 east you have to be in the 2 leftmost lanes, then the 2 rightmost lanes, then back to the 2 leftmost lanes. Awful!!! at the very least take i440 to go around the mess. it’ll be worth it.
Continued on and 5 hours later I was at the Buc-ee’s in Crossville Tennesee. loaded up on gas and had a “light” dinner. Then onto Knoxville. At some point around there I lost an hour to the changeover from Central time to Eastern timezone.
Got through that then onto i-81 north for an hour until I found myself at the Kingsport Cracker Barrel. I’ll get some pancakes in the morning and head up to my friends in Maryland. They’re about 7 hours from here, but add an hour for gas, food and biobreaks. Should be an easier day tomorrow. Today I did the 10-11 hour drive.
Talked with Jacqui, might stay at Mark and Teresa’s Friday too if we’ve got stuff to do. Then I’ll have an easier drive home on Saturday. I might drive to ok4wd.com in new jersey. Just have to leave early Saturday, they close early at 1:30p.m., and they’re 2.5-3 hours from the Maryland place.
