19. Memphis

Aug 17, 2009 Uncategorized

Fuck me, I think I slept for maybe 4 hours last night. It’s so hot and humid here that trying to sleep in my tent was probably on par with trying to steam a clam with low heat. I probably fell asleep around 5 am. I went to a gas station around 11 pm to get some water and Gatorade. I almost looked for sleeping pills but figured that was a bad idea. Actually, I would have been far better off being knocked out for 8 hours.

I was supposed to be here for 1 night. I was going to meet up with a friend of a friend but that fell through because some stuff came up that he had to deal with. No big deal, but instead of going somewhere with AC I hung out in my tent. I did at least manage to find an RV park in downtown Memphis to camp at. How sweet is that?

Anyways, the ride to Memphis was boring. The highlight was when some kid in a Mustang pulled a U-turn on a 5-lane (2 each way with a turn lane) about 1,000 feet ahead of me. I slowly caught up him doing about 75 mph and eased by him with only one hand on the handlebars. I don’t know if he took that as a sign of intimidation, but a few seconds later he punched it and flew by me. I figured he was just having fun.

A couple miles later we were both stuck behind the same car going 66 mph to pass a truck going 65 mph. You got to love those kind of drivers. When that ordeal ended I was pacing him from a couple seconds back, and we were doing about 80 mph. That’s when I decided to have some fun and grabbed a handful of throttle. I got up to around 100 mph and blew by him. I checked my mirror though and could tell he was speeding up to follow me. Eventually I slowed down a bit and he passed me. I didn’t know what to do at the point, but he started swerving a little and crossing yellow lines. It was friday night around 7 pm. Maybe he was drunk; I don’t know, but his inability to keep to his lane was enough for me to let him get away. And then a cop drove by a mile later which reaffirmed my decision to return back to a decent speed.

Downtown Memphis looked pretty wild. I didn’t spend too much time there. I followed the advice my friend of a friend gave me and went to the Flying Saucer to get dinner and use their Wifi to find a campground. I opted for the soft pretzel baked with chopped up bratwurst and Swiss cheese. That was a really good choice. With no word from my contact there I went to the campground to set up my home.

The campground was actually an RV park that let me pitch a tent in the courtyard. That worked for me though. I was close enough to a building that I had power to charge all my chargeables. I was going to take a nice cold shower, but at this point I remember I never packed any shampoo. ugh, time to find a gas station.

I figured downtown would be a pain in the ass to find anything, so I headed south of downtown because that was kind of where the RV park was. I don’t know if the whole city is in a ghetto, but this part of it appeared to be. At this point I will offer this information: I grew up in a small Alaskan fishing village, so I’ve spent most of my life in an isolated white culture. I wouldn’t go as far to say I’m racist, but I think certain stereotypes are there for a reason. I’ll give anyone I meet a fair chance, but when it comes to strangers I revert to stereotypes.

So I come to this little corner store. There are a couple cars full of people just loitering in the parking lot. As I get off my bike and head indoors an 8-10 year old black kid and his mother come out. The kid came out and said, “Oh shit, is that a GS bike? You gotta let me ride it. At least take me as a passenger and do a lap around the block.” And then he and his mother just stopped and stared at me awaiting my response. What the hell was this kid thinking I would say? “Oh here, take the keys. I’m going to assume you know how to ride it. Just bring it back in a few minutes so I can be on way when I finish shopping.” So I told him, “No, sorry. I’m kind of in the middle of something important.” This was a true statement though.

When I realized I didn’t have any shampoo I figured I could just use the hand soap at the bathroom facility at the RV park. Soap/shampoo, they all do the same basic thing. No, I couldn’t because both the men’s and women’s bathrooms were absent of any soap. By the time I caught this I had already brought all my supplies to the shower and set aside which clean clothes to wear. The next step would have been to strip down, but without and shampoo I had to go out.

I asked the guy behind the counter (and behind some very thick glass) if they had shampoo. He tried to hand me some family sized bottle which I turned down. I asked for the small bottle of children’s shampoo instead and was on my way. To my delight when I came back out my bike was still there and unharmed. I was thrilled that the kid wasn’t bitter and didn’t knock it over. On I went back to the RV park.

I took a cold shower, but even that water felt warm after about a minute. I found this to be frustrating since I didn’t even turn the hot water knob. I got dressed and sat in my tent to figure out what to do. My quickly decided it was too hot and promptly begin sweating. Good thing I bothered with that shower 10 minutes earlier. I decided to use the downtime to catch up on the blog. I had been putting that off for far too long.

But since I was hot and sweaty once I again, I figured I might as well go to a gas station to get a cold drink. Since the last one was as sketch as it gets, I opted to not take the freeway south this time but instead take the streets to south edge of downtown. It turned out to not make a difference.

I pulled up first to a red light and waited. A car pulled up next to me with two black guys in it. No big deal. Their windows were down and they yelled to me “You better be careful.” So I thought “Oh shit here it comes. Why do I need to be careful?” I figured it was either because they were warning me about the neighborhood I was in or they were going to rob me. Instead he told me something about how he buried his cousin the day before after something involving a bike lead to his death. I told him was sorry to hear that and felt a little embarrassed about my overreaction.

I’ve never been to a gas station with a security guard before, but I’d never been to Memphis either. He didn’t even look happy. He looked mad. I did some shopping and got some water and gatorade and also planned on getting a cup of ice for my camelbak. I was next in line when this guy just walks in, stands next to me, and takes the place of the guy in front of me after he buys his stuff. What the fuck just happened? I was clearly in line, but I wasn’t going to say anything. What a friendly and inviting place to live in. Full of line cutters. I bought my stuff, got my ice, and got the hell out of there.

Since my tent was close enough to a building to use its outdoor outlets, it was also about 5 feet from the AC unit. The AC unit alternated from on/off every 20 minutes all night long. It sounded like a generator operating just outside of my tent.

Around 4 am I tried my luck at sleeping. That didn’t go so well because every time I almost fell asleep a slight breeze would blow the side of my tent into my leg. I really felt like a dog’s nose pressing into the tent, so I kept waking up startled. There was also a mosquito that kept landing on me. After 4 or 5 times of being woken up shortly after dozing off I was on quite the edge. So I grabbed my knife and slept with it on my chest. I kept it in its sheath though. Safety first.