Hi friends,

I’ve found over this road trip, and knew from my last, that flexibility is key to having a good time. When you look up a booking for a national park and everything is full, you say “that’s fine, I’m flexible” and you look for a state park. When the rain is coming down in buckets and all the rivers are rising too high to cross on a hike, you say “that’s fine, I’m flexible.”

And when the Spiro Mounds are closed off, the Gilcrease Museum is closed for renovations, and NOAA is predicting hail and thunderstorms all across the Panhandle state, you say “that’s fine, I’m flexible! And screw Oklahoma.” And then you call Aunt Jeanie 🙂

I crossed the Mississippi Thursday afternoon, after taking in the unforgettable sights of the world’s 11th largest pyramid and fishing store: the Great Bass Pro Shop Pyramid of Memphis.

I look upon this marvel ask the same questions the Romans, and the Arabians, and the Mamluks, and all passersby must have asked at Giza; what wondrous and ancient culture built this monument? And why? And HOW? What great religious significance did it posses for its builders, that its permanence bequeathed a sense of awe to three hundred generations of onlookers?

But unlike Giza, this pyramid does not store mummies and artifacts as far as I know, probably not anyhow, it stores a combination fishing store, restaurant, boat dealership, and hotel. But also like Giza, there are animals interred here to provide companionship for the great triangle’s inhabitants on their journey to the afterlife the parking lot:

I think the enormous fish above are Mississippi Paddlefish? They look like sturgeon but not like the ones we have back in the Lakes. Not pictured: the live freaking alligators they have in a pen over as well.

In all good sense, the observation deck of the Pyramid was actually really lovely and afforded a great views of the Mississippi and downtown Memphis:

Oh yeah, this isn’t in some field between to interstates 30 miles from town, this is in DOWNTOWN freaking Memphis.

So anyways, the diatribe about Oklahoma: shortly after I left the Great Pyramid and crossed the river into Arkansas, a horrible thunderstorm shook the state, just thunder and lightning and rapturous green skies, all that good stuff. When I finally got to Little Rock I checked the weather and found it was going to be much the same, plus hail, for the next several days over Oklahoma. Combined with the fact that two of the three things I wants to see in the Sooner State were closed, it was not shaping up to be a pleasant time crossing the state.

I don’t have many great photos from Little Rock, and to be honest the town kind of sucked (except for the Firehouse Hostel and Museum where I stayed! That was great!) but there was this cool local bridge where people put lovers’ locks on the railings. Brendan and Michaela, whatever you are, I hope things are going good; and I hope your mutual love for velcro is stronger than ever ❤️. I love that miracle material too 💙.

So rather than be bombarded by hail and bad vibes for three days, I changed my plans and cut south to see my Aunt Jeanie in Louisiana! I stayed from Friday to Sunday and had an absolutely wonderful time. We played cards and bananagrams and Azul and, as expected, my absolute shark of an Aunt demolished me in all three games 🙂

“Oh I’m not going to be good at this game, I’m not great with word games” Aunt Jeanie, moments before crushing me 3-0 in banagrams.

Whatever you do, do NOT play this lovely Aunt of mine for money!

In addition to the fun, we had a lovely culinary tour of Cajun country, with gumbo and boudin and po’boys aplenty:

Boudin is a local sausage made with rice, vegetables, a spice blend that is to die for, and whatever meat is on hand (shrimp in this case) and cooked hot in a natural casing. They come from local butchers only, called “Boucheries” in Cajun french. It’s basically the platonic form of sausage. Why the hell don’t we make this everywhere???

And Aunt Jeanie spoiled me every further with dozens of homemade chocolate chip cookies to take on the road!

You know I thought I would originally lose weight on this trip? Ah well, a lovely reason to be wrong 🙂

So it came time to roll on again today and I said goodbye to Louisiana, and made west for Texas. I decided to stay flexible, scrap my Oklahoma plans, and try for Big Bend and Carlsbad instead of Spiro Mounds and Black Mesa.

Pic unrelated, just some enormous tires I saw rolling down (metaphorically, thank the Lord not literally) (looking at you Spence) I-10.

Some of you may have wondered what my setup looks like when I’m actually out and on the road, and not pitching my tent in my parent’s yard. Well there was beautiful clear skies where I set up tonight in Texas, so I grabbed some photos of everything set up in the tent before I put the rain fly on.

I have a good cot that just perfectly fits the length of the tent. If can’t be seen above, but I also have a 1.5″ full-sized foam mattress topper from Target that I fold in half and put on the cot for 3″ of memory foam. I then put a set of long twin sheets over that to make an extremely comfortable bed. The box in the corner is one of three that I have for storing clothes. It’s a pretty good arrangement if I do say so myself!

I reckon that’s all for now. It feels so good to be across the Mississippi and really in the west. I feel so free and unashamedly unattached. I am a ribbon in the wind and I am bouncing and twisting and dancing wherever I am blown 💙.

And of course, if I am ever blown off course, I always have my family and friends to back me up 🙂 Thank you soooo much again for putting me up Aunt Jeanie! I had a wonderful time hanging out with you!

Stay well everyone,

Evan 💙