9 mile hike at Chickasaw Bluffs instead of Graceland.

Dinner with gingerales and rum. We hung out with friend from high school and her husband, and yes, gingerale and rum goes together.

Maybe Graceland tomorrow even though it costs more money than it’s worth.

I accidentally planned one more day in Memphis than I thought. There is a big white square with nothing penciled in or scribbled out on my handmade calendar. We are not expected in Little Rock until Saturday. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do.

*edit: We never made it to Graceland or The Civil Rights Museum. Although we drove by both.

Although inspired to just stop driving in Nashville and live with James in his Airstream Nirvana, we had to leave. We made it to Memphis without incident. Well, without any bad incidents. There were a few incidents like stopping for gas, checking email, calling Andy’s phone from my phone to make him think he was getting a call but then no, it was just me calling from the passenger seat. You know, incidents like that.

Now these two road weary travelers are going to snuggle up in their sleeping bags and download episode nine of our favorite Showtime series about a serial killer that works for the Miami police department and only kills people who deserve it. Don’t deny it, at first you were really disturbed by Dexter, but now you just can’t get enough.

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Originally uploaded by cindigodotcom.

Very inspirational.

I was just re-reading some of my past entries and I would just like to state that I really don’t drink (liquor) as much as it seems like. It’s just that when I’m drinking fun (and funny) things happen.

Either that or I am in a serious state of denial and need an intervention.

I am in the passenger seat of the big black Cadillac. We are driving downtown to see the larger than life statue of Billy Graham with a 17 foot cross behind him. Then lunch with James and on to Memphis.

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Originally uploaded by cindigodotcom.

We made it to Nashville and spent the evening at the Blue Bird Cafe. We watched The Thing Called Love last week. It’s a old and bad (2 1/2 stars….bad but okay) movie featuring the Blue Bird Cafe. For fun, I looked it up on the web and wrote down the address on the scribbled on outline of our trip.

In the movie writer’s night was Monday at 5:30 sharp. Coincidentally, we arrived at the door of the Blue Bird at 5:20 Monday afternoon. We stayed all three hours and were surprised that the movie was a pretty accurate portrayal of the people, the place and the music. So many really not good singer/songwriters with a serious passion and drive to make it big with a few amazing acts thrown in between.

Then we went down to Broadway where for a stretch or four or five blocks there was a bar with a band in every other building. We stopped at Layla’s Bluegrass Inn and stayed for a beer and some good music before we called it a night.

James, the guy we were staying with had a perfect storm of events happen including getting his car stuck in the mud on the hill up to his place and his phone dying. His friend Nate took us in for the night where we got to hang out with Harry the cat who had his tail chomped in a fight and has to wear a cone on his head for another week or so. It was so sad to watch him try to clean himself. He would stick out a leg and move his head like he was cleaning his fur and just be licking the inside of the plastic cone. Nate and his friends were really nice and we spent a late night on the couch talking.

On the road to Nashville. It’s raining and I’m drinking tea as we glide down the highway in the stealthy black Cadillac. The air smells like wonderful midwestern air. My soul is being restored.

We’re in Indianapolis at Noah’s house. We just finished drinking a few Blue Moon beers and watching the Denver Broncos lose at a local sports bar. Okay, maybe one too many beers. When getting out of the car I was overwhelmed by my pack and fell on my back into a bush.

It’s raining here but really beautiful. It’s been striking me how much I miss having trees around. It’s cold but as Andy has explained to me repeatedly, “not so bad when you’re dressed properly”. I’m rarely dressed properly.

Tomorrow it’s only a four hour drive to Nashville where we’ll be hanging out with James for a day or two.

21. Driving in the State of Nevada is a _____.

A. birthright
B. entitlement
C. right
D. privilege

That’s right people, it’s a privilege and I am one of the privileged. I have jumped through THE MAN’S hoops and can now drive with a little less money and a few more bits of driving trivia.

We just got back from spending Thanksgiving at Andy’s sister’s house. We met many new relatives. Andy’s sister’s husband’s mom is a genealogy buff and brought over a ten pound notebook about Andy’s side of the family. It was well researched, documented and in depth. We were surprised and a little disheartened to read the scant entry for us, “Cindy and Andy Blair live in an RV somewhere around Las Vegas”.

Nice.

It is snowing. Really, real snow and everything. Cold. It’s more like half sleeting, half snowing, with all of it blowing parallel to the ground.

To say the least, it’s not great. I forgot how not great this weather is. Once a year, I come back and remember why I migrated west. Thank you for the cold, sleety, windy, really cold, slushy reminder. I’ve had enough and am ready to forget until next year.

Thanksgiving tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving. We’re bringing my mom’s semi-huge HD TV over to Andy’s fam’s house for football largeness. 26 people in a house that should fit no more than 10 comfortably. It should be interesting to say the least.

I’m almost done with online traffic school. It’s pretty much a joke, but I am NOT (are you listening MAN?) complaining. And really, MAN, when I say joke, I mean funny like “knock, knock” not joke like ” a ridiculous waste of time and a completely transparent scam to get even more money out of the taxpayers”. Because honestly, it’s a jolly good way to spend a fun evening.

I’ve figured out that you can start the test, leave the room until the timer counts down and then answer the three questions at the end with two or three minutes of skimming.

Do you think that this is one of those posts that’s going to come back and bite me in the ass?

We made it to Chicago. It’s a good thing too because I forgot to post my obligatory “I love you all” post before flying, in case of a fiery crash.

After getting in around 3 am and then reading for an hour or so before sleeping, we pretty much slept all day. Okay, I slept all day.

My mom called at ten in the morning. She’s in Kansas with Bob’s (stepdad’s) son Kenny until Friday. I answered the phone from a dead sleep. She thought I was Andy and proceeded to apologize for waking me (him) because he (me) must have gotten in late and needed sleep. When I cleared my throat and made it more clear that it was me and not my husband, I got, “Cynthia, what (read:in the hell) are you doing in bed so late”. It figures. What’s that spiel about a prophet not being appreciated in his own country. Let me just say, you people in this country of mine, you’re missing out big time.

We went to dinner at 5 with Andy’s sisters, sister’s husbands and kids and now we are drinking liquor, watching educational television (Planet Earth) and completing my online driver’s education course that THE MAN made me do for disobeying a no U-turn sign. Andy said it was ironic that we were working on the course while drinking, but I think it would only be ironic if I was ticketed for drunk driving.

I’m having a fun time. Finally a trip out of Vegas with my husband. And a trip out of Vegas with moisture in the air. I am in a state of bliss. The alcohol may have something to do with it, but regardless, bliss just the same.

I am almost ready to shut down my laptop and scamper off mysteriously into the night. We’re staying at The Paris Hotel tonight and leaving for Chicago tomorrow at 7:30 in the evening.

Finally leaving Vegas….thank gods.

Surfing the internet. Watching Andy research and wait for the oven to preheat to cook his frozen pizza lunch. Bikram yoga at 3. My mysterious ways have been exposed.

We’re flying out to Chicago for Thanksgiving to visit Andy’s parents. I’m much more excited for the trip since they decided to come to Chicago to celebrate at Andy’s sister’s house. I know this doesn’t have the same happy impact on those of you reading this that haven’t had the experience of hanging out with Andy’s family in Green Bay. I didn’t mean for that last sentence sound like Green Bay for Thanksgiving is a horrible experience, which it really wasn’t. Any event that creates stories that are repeated for a lifetime can’t be that bad.

My mom wants to spend the winter in San Diego and was planning on driving there herself. She’s 70. A young 70, I’ll give her that, but I didn’t want her driving across country all alone. Also, I didn’t really want to spend all that time trapped in a car with her. I love the lady but…you know. So we volunteered to transport the car and she volunteered to pay for the gas. A perfect match. She’s flying to Vegas for Christmas and then heading out to San Diego.

So far I have us flying into Chicago and then driving to> Indianapolis> Nashville> Memphis> Kansas City> Oklahoma City> Albuquerque> Farmington> Flagstaff> (or St. Geroge)> Las Vegas> (then if we’re not too worn out, San Diego and Ensenada MX)

We haven’t been doing much. I haven’t been writing much. You can thank me for sparing your life since it would probably kill you to repeatedly read, “Surfed the internet. Rode to Taco Bell with Andy. Watched Andy tpye on his computer and research. Surfed the internet more. Watched some downloaded media on the computer. Went to bed.” Repeat that every day since the last entry and the few people that actually bother reading this would disappear.

I thought it was better to stay quiet. You might think I was more mysterious that way.