Day 9: Clanton, Alabama; 461.4 miles; 7:18; Total Miles breaks 3,000.

This was a travel day. As we started out and it was very muggy with misty clouds close to the ground.  At Hayti, Mo. we were joined by a drove of trucks.  As we entered Arkansas we saw a sign saying "Speed Limit Strictly Enforced, No Tolerance."  Welcome to Arkansas.

Our short trip through Arkansas was full of road construction.  The only site of interest was a small yellow airplane buzzing the highway.  Jim thought it must be a crop duster. We were in the flatlands again, low elevation.  

We stayed on I-55 to Memphis, although I had to trick Miss Direction who wanted us to go off onto side roads to Birmingham.  Sometimes you have to finesse her to get her to take the route you want.  We crossed the Mighty Mississippi River into Tennessee and Memphis (population 646,889; elevation 387 ft).

We were on the beltway and all was going well until we exited onto US 78 towards Birmingham.  This dumped us onto a 4-lane, city road and a wall of trucks.  At one point we had about 10 trucks in front of us and 10 behind -- makes you feel awfully small.  As we got out of Memphis, the traffic opened up with all the trucks in the right lane and a wide-open left lane in front of us.  Jim was tempted to floor it, but common sense prevailed and he set the cruise control for 70 mph.  He did determine that they probably do not "strictly" enforce the speed limit in this state because everyone was passing us (including the trucks.)

As we left Memphis, we entered Mississippi.  First town of note was Holly Springs (population 7,699; elevation 601 ft).  The town was established during the great antebellum cotton boom.  General Ulysses S. Grant set up a supply depot here in 1862 then departed for Vicksburg.  By the end of the war, the town had been raided by the union soldiers 62 times.

In mid-September the town celebrates the migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird.  Thousands of birds gather here at Strawberry Plain Audubon Center on their way from Canada to Central America.

At this point US 78 had turned into a 4-lane freeway similar to the Avenue of the Saints we traveled yesterday.  Since it goes through Tupelo (population: 34,546; elevation 270 ft.) which is the birthplace of Elvis Presley, I thought they should name this Avenue of the King.  As for rest areas, there were none by any name, so we decided to stop in Tupelo for a rest stop.  Jim made it clear that although he liked Elvis's music, he was NOT stoping for any touristy Elvis places.

We got off following the sign for Tupelo and ended up on another 4-lane freeway.  We took the next exit and were completely turned around.  We stopped at a connivence store where Jim's first question to the clerk was, "How in the world do you get back on the highway to Birmingham?"  She said that she gets that question all the time and described a rather convoluted route back.  She said that although you could see the freeway we wanted from the store, you had to go in the opposite direction to get there.  We made it back with some help from Miss Direction.

Jim wanted me to make sure and give this travel warning:  DO NOT GET OFF THE FREEWAY AT TUPELO FOR ANY REASON.  It is sort of like getting stuck on Sandy Blvd. in Portland.  You can not be sure you can ever get back.

Not too far from Tupelo we crossed over a bridge over the Tallahatchie River.

We entered Alabama and were greeted with signs that say:  "Lights on When Raining."  Makes us wonder about the rain here.  So far we haven't seen any today.  This area is pretty country with rolling hills and lots of trees, both deciduous and evergreen.  This area is at the tail-end of the Appalachian Mts.  The trees are still short by Northwest standards, but taller than in the midwest.  And we noticed that the Billboards were very high up.  So high, they are hard to read.  After a while, we realized they were high so they would be above the trees.

We made it through Birmingham (population: 212,237; elevation: 1,200 ft.) with the help of Miss Direction.  Reminded me of Seattle traffic.  We couldn't take the beltway, so drove right through the city.  As we approached the city we saw what Jim calls the "Smokestacks of Birmingham."  Birmingham was once called the "Pittsburg of the South" because of the numerous ironworks in the area.  This is also the place where Martin Luther King was arrested and wrote his famous "Letter form a Birmingham Jail."

We decided to get as far from the big cities as we could to find a place to stay.  We chose Clanton (population 8,619; elevation 600 ft.) which is about half-way from Birmingham to Montgomery.

We traveled many miles today.  Looks like we will get to Florida tomorrow, but Florida is a VERY long state.  Hope to be in Naples Friday or Saturday.