I have just arrived to the outskirts of the town of Tunica, Mississippi. I will be making camp on the grounds of the Tunica Museum, the director of the museum, Dick, was good enough to let me borrow a small patch of grass out the back. As the title says, today is the last day I will be walking for this leg of the trek. I have 5 days to get from where I am now to New Orleans where my flight is leaving from to Colombia, and seeing the next 2 or 3 days are forecast as rain and thunderstorms, there is no point in waiting for them to pass and then walking another day or two if I am lucky. So the Tunica Museum will be where I will need to come back to in 2012 to continue where I left off. I still have around 500kms to go more or less. Seeing I have already covered over 2000kms, the last 500kms, I hope, will be a nice, enjoyable stroll, this I hope anyway...
Last night I was looking for somewhere to set up camp. I tell you, the further south I have gone, the people are very wary of helping someone out when it comes to camping. When I was north of Memphis, finding a place to camp was no problem at all, next to bars, gas stations, churches, motels and even peoples properties. But since arriving around the Memphis area and further south, I am sorry to say it has been a lot harder, people have even laughed in my face when I have asked. I do not know if the laws are any different in the states, but, oh well... Last night I came to a gas station that was next to a little outside business that sold little cubby house type things. they were really cool, with just one room, a few windows and a door. The insides were all of wood but still pretty cozy. I went over and said gday to lady working there and asked if I coud put up my tent out the back of the cubbies, she immedietly told me no, no, no. I thanked her andyway and went to ask the people at the gas station. they told me no problem. Just as I was pushing the last few pegs of my tent into the ground, the lady from the cubby house place turned up with her husband. They got out and started asking me about what I was doing. The man was a really nice guy, a real country lad with a good heart. I think he might have encouraged the lady to come over and offer me the option to spend the night in one of the cubby houses. When she offered I greatfully accecpted, as it would be a lot warmer and would save me the hassle of packing up a cold, wet tent in the morning. The couple bid me goodnight and I went to choose my room for the night. There was about ten different ones there. I chose a little one that resembled a little farm house and bunked in around 8pm and slept like a baby.
I was up early today and headed over to the gas station to grab some breakfast. I got chatting to the lady there who was a very lively, funny women. 20 mins later another younger girl who worked there also came in, not looking very happy at all. Something is going on here I though, you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. And then it was on! These two had obviousloy had some issues that morning that I had missed. They started arguing about who was supposed to do what around the place. A few more customers came in during the situation but this did not deter them at all. the older lady in her strong southern accent started yelling, "Yall (you all) wanna see a fight?" Speaking to us, the customers, "I will drag this thing all over the place if she puts her hands near me again?". I could not help myself and started to laugh a little, it was a pretty nuts, hectic scene but a little comical aswell. The younger girl took off out of the shop, and jumped into her car yelling that she was going to call the boss. Boy was the lady fired up. "I got this one, I got this one" she was repeating to us. I would not have fought her thats for sure. I thanks her, wished her luck and got out of the ring before round 2 kicked off.
I will continue the blog until the day I leave for Colombia as I am sure that I will still be coming across many strange, and also, many beautiful people that you will like to hear about. I will be hitch hiking all the way to New Orleans and most likely passing through some of the areas I will need to walk on my return, so it will be interesting to get an idea of where I will be heading.
On the last day of walking this strech I do do not have any amazing feeling of acheivement, nor do I feel a surge of emotions. I am happy with how far I have gotten in the period I had, I did not expect to pass Memphis which I did, I am happy with that. Right now I am looking forward to heading south by the use of something else other than my own two aching legs. I am looking forward to arriving in New Orleans at the house of a friend I will stay with for a night or two. I am looking forward to wearing normal, clean clothes again. I am looking forward to cooking a decent meal. I am looking forward to a warm bed. I am looking forwrad to arriving back to the mountains surrounding Bogota in Colombia. And most of all I am especially looking forward to seeing Cami and her family and spending Christmas with them. I am looking forward to a rest!
Keep following guys, as I said I will be keeping you all informed on the next week in the USA, and then once I am in Colombia, I will let everyone know when I will be returning to complete the rest of the trek.
God Bless...
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