Memphis to Mississippi

I'd say by far, the best part of this job has been having the opportunity to see places and people we would otherwise have not. Along with this has been making some new friends along the way. Two of these new friends are James and Kim. We met them back when we were en route to Memphis in September. We actually met them in Hot Springs where we went on a day off to get scrubbed and rubbed at the bath houses there. Since we last saw them they have bought a house and invited us to stay with them during our stint in Memphis this time. So it was great to have friends to stay with and save the expense and stress of a hotel or RV park and be able to relax and socialize. They also have a couple dogs Lilo and Charlie and had just gotten a third one named Diego. So being dog friendly we had a nice supply of them to help keep us company.

One night after work Anilia and I were in the bedroom working on computer stuff and making phone calls when we heard sounds of panic and eyeballs from the other room. We ran into the other room and Kim was freaking out a bit that Diego had bitten Charlie and punctured his eyeball. She was all covered in blood which Charlie was squirting about the garage like a furry little super soaker. Anilia came to the rescue and got Kim to calm down and clean up while she got a closer examination of the dog. Now Anilia has had experience with pushing dog eyeballs back into their sockets when they pop out, which does in fact happen sometimes. Usually if you blow into their snout really hard like a birthday balloon.

It turned out that there was no actual eyeball damage, but a bitten ear tip which had gotten blood all around Charlie's eyeball area due to the innate floppiness of doggy ears. At first Kim stuck the dog in the tub to wash all the blood off. But when Charlie got out he just started shaking his head dry and spattering more blood. So Anilia scooped him up and just squeezed his ear and held it for about a half an hour. James was sent to get liquid stitches and after a couple attempts the bleeding was finally stopped. Soon he was chomping on rawhide like nothing had happened and Anilia had made a new furry friend.

The rest of our time in Memphis was pleasant but uneventful. We made dinner a few nights for them and had a good time. Then we headed on down to McComb Mississippi for our next stop. My old buddy Chris from high school lives in Jackson so we got to visit with him for a couple days as well. I haven't seen him in about six years since he got married. He now has a little girl in addition to his wife's daughter. It was fun to catch up and reminisce about old times and note how time has indeed marched along. We got to go to two great performances while there. First we went to my first ever ballet production. It was The Nutcracker. And I must say it was pretty impressive. The production was great as far as the sets and lighting, though the music was canned and too loud. But overall it was a good show.

That night Chris took us to the 930 Blues Club which is an old house that has been converted into a bar. It was really neat small and dirty and filled with a crazy mix of people. The band was really smoking and it was great to see some true nitty gritty down south blues in action.

We just drove back to McComb and a heron almost flew into our windshield on the way! We tried to park the RV for about 15 minutes in a joint effort of miscommunication and frustration before giving up and parking somewhere else. Now we are in our rooms and getting ready for bed. Looks like tomorrow will be the first day that it will be warm enough to set up outside that we have seen in over a month. I just realized that in about 5 more days I will never have to set foot in a WallyWorld again. This is a good thing.