So, Memphis was OK, I say not walking in Memphis because it does have it's sketchy parts that you maybe shouldn't walk in, especially by yourself...and at night. And in all truth Memphis seemed a bit dumpy to me. I mean, probably all cities have rundown parts, and maybe I just happened to see them all in Memphis, but there were quite a bit. Anywho, it was cool to experience though, maybe not the sketchy parts so much, but you know, just seeing another part of the country and seeing how different people live, I find that very interesting. And I feel like it helps me understand people a bit better as well. TN does have a lot of pretty green trees all over. So even when you're in the city there are a lot of trees all around you, which is pretty cool.
I did try some BBQ while there and some fried chicken, both came recommended by the front desk guy at my hotel and they were both really good. The fried chicken had some spice in the fried part of the chicken, and I normally am a totally wimp to anything spicy and I don't like it, but this was OK, just the right amount to give it some flavor without burning my mouth off too much, though it did make my lips tingle. The BBQ was good too. I know people have strong opinions about BBQ, and I'm not one of those people. It was good, I can't say that it was so much better than whatever state's BBQ or that it was unique in some way, it was just good BBQ, that's all. I'm not good at being a food critic, I say, "Hey, it's good!" Or "Nah, I didn't like it." that's about the extent of my food critiques.
So, I was really only in Memphis for a week, so maybe it would have grown on me a bit more if I would have been there longer. But I wasn't, and it didn't grow on me much. I did meet a cool couple when I went to the temple and they invited me to a Chinese Lantern Festival, so I checked that out with them and it was cool and they were cool. But turns out they live in Arkansas anyways ha!
Well, so Memphis, yah, that's it.
Moving on, and I did move on, the trip from Memphis to my next location in OR was just over 2,000 miles or 30 hrs driving. I didn't drive all that at once. I broke it up and first drove to Wichita, KS then Cheyenne, WY then I stopped in UT for several days and hung out with my fam and some friends, which was rad! I sometimes think you don't appreciate how great a place is until you leave it, or maybe just the people you leave behind, but I do miss it, I do miss them I should say. Same with everywhere I've ever lived. I always miss people a lot, like a hecka lot!
Anywho, so I made it to OR and that's where I've been the last month. We had some big areas up in OR that took us a long time to list, which was truthfully just fine with me because while I was in OR I was able to go home to Spokane every weekend, which was the best! I was able to spend a lot of time with my fam and with friends, and it was awesome. And as previously stated, now that I left, I miss it (them) even more. :(
Also, if you ever find yourself passing through the Tri-Cities, specifically Pasco, you must stop at a place called Country Mercantile. It has free samples of all sorts of chocolate covered nuts, and breads and dips and everything pretty much! It also has really good (and huge) ice cream cones! You for sure need to check it out!
OR is a pretty state also, but I feel like where I was in Eastern OR it wasn't as pretty as everywhere else in OR. It had a lot of farmland, which isn't that pretty to me, and I've discovered that most of the U.S. is made up of farmland. There were a lot of onion fields actually, like in one area you'd roll down the window and the air smelled like onions. So, I guess farms are important or we wouldn't have onions. ;) Anywho, there were some mountainous areas which we had to drive in and many dirt/gravel roads in those areas. I definitely have a new appreciation for paved roads!
The drive down from OR to CA was actually super pretty. I went through a lot of National Forest or something, there were seriously dense pine trees on both sides that just went on and on, I actually kept thinking about how I would surely die if I ever found myself in any part of the dense forest. Like if I was stranded there for some reason I would never get rescued because no one can see anything through all the trees. Put up a smoke signal and it would probably just get stuck in the branches, certain death for sure. Anywho, there were huge white mountains in the distance, some famous mountains I'm sure like Mt. Hood and Mt. Shasta. It was a cool drive down.
Now I'm in CA, in the bay-ish area. Not right in SF but close enough. So far it's been OK, I've only been here a few days. First impressions are: #1 Too many people live in CA and #2 CA is too hot. That's all I have so far, I'm sure I'll come up with more later. Oh, and you have to pay $.10 per bag you use at any store, something about saving the environment. I should be here for a couple weeks, but I'm actually whizzing through my areas so I might not be here long at all. We shall see.
So that's that. I think you're all caught up on my adventures so far. I'm really gonna try to remember to write a proper blog, in the proper time frame after I'm done here. That way you won't get a hodgepodge blog of the last several months all smashed into one.
Wherever you are and whatever you're doing I hope that you are happy and enjoying life! I also hope that one of these days, on my journeyings, our paths will cross! :)
