Beware the Ides of March - and weather in the Deep South

Today, March 15th, was planned as one of the longest driving days that we will have over the entire trip, with the goal of getting all the way to the other side of Tennessee in one fell swoop. Originally, we wanted to take a more scenic route than traveling I-40 from Asheville to Memphis would provide. So, our plan had been to leave Asheville, head towards Chattanooga through the Nantahala Gorge (a favorite spot of ours), then head onto Huntsville, AL and finally to a town just south of Memphis named Olive Branch, MS.

But Mother Nature had other plans - we watched the forecasts of the impending severe weather which were predicted to worse the farther south you went and decided that pivoting to the I-40 route to take a northerly route made better, safer sense. We planned to set out no later than 7am to make the 8-hour drive, which would take 10 hours with stops for charging and comfort breaks. 

We got to bed on the early side on Friday night after packing up our stuff to make it easy to get out the door quickly. But, as per usual, Leon and I had a hard time sleeping before a big trip, so we were up by 3:40 and on the road by 4:20am. Getting through the Pigeon River Gorge was something we were dreading, since it was one lane each way for about 20 miles. We were glad that we got such an early start, because even at 5:30, the drive was slow (about 25 mph).

We started running into light rain just after passing through Knoxville, which was about daylight. We went through some heavier bands before the rain stopped for a while. Then the rain came down really hard from Nashville and past Jackson. We were fortunate to get very little wind gusts and no hail at all. When we arrived in Olive Branch at 1pm, it was still raining moderately but getting lighter. I took a nap until about 3pm and the sky was clearing with sun coming through the thinning clouds. Leon did an amazing job driving through all of the weather. We stopped twice to charge with good experiences both times (chargers were in good working order and charged quickly).

Dinner was at a local chain Memphis bbq place
named Corky's. The ribs and the greens
were particularly good, as was the banana pudding we 
brought back to the hotel for dessert.

I was very happy that I was seated right next to
this artwork featuring one of my absolute
favorite musicians, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Tomorrow, we travel on to Hot Springs to visit the national park and enjoy the waters there!