Day Four. Snow in Tennessee?

Thursday January 12, 2023 - Driving from Painesville OH to somewhere in Tennessee

Road trips were made for fast food weren't they? I'm so glad that Arby's is healthy too - I mean after all it is steak so that sounds like a win heck yeah!!

I just put a few hours of driving behind me and now as I'm sitting, eating, melted cheese dripping from the corners of my mouth (what is this stuff it's incredible!?), contemplating my next move and what supplies I need to buy for the rest of the trip - I notice a shop across the parking lot...what the heck is it called... Adult Mart? I wonder what they sell? It actually looks like a normal clothing store, except for that neon sign. Oh geez that's what it is ok. Didn't expect that at all!

Maybe I could get a blowup person to put in the passenger seat so I can drive in the HOV lane? Ha!

(Post script note: Honestly though that whole industry has always kinda been a non-thing for me. Love-making is so much more, so incredibly and beautifully soul bonding that the need to buy 'other things' for it seem to distract from that to me. I've recently been blessed with a woman that mirors this deep soul awareness enabling us to experience the most blissful lovemaking ever - eyes locked together in pure presence, a oneness beyond anything a word could capture.. Crazy other-worldly intimacy. I'm not prude or living in a closet or condeming anything at all but you definitely have to be careful with anything that takes away from a healthy love and puts all focus on gratification as it can be a slippery slope. It's kinda the same as how I look at other "addicitions" (as this could easily become). Nothing wrong with having an alcoholic drink - because you want to and enjoy one here and there - just not because you need to. If the drink, or the sex owns you, thats when it's unhealthy. So in a beautiful healthy realtionship if people want to buy a feather (wait no ducks were harmed here right!?) to lightly touch their partner - super!

Might be a topic to explore more for sure.)

So as I drive south away from Ohio to find some warmer temperatures I recheck the weather and wow they are now anticipating snow flurries, thirty degree temperatures and winds up around forty mph! What the heck! I thought the word Tennessee meant warm temperaturee's in ancient latin or something doesn't it? I knew I should've taken something other than spanish in high school. Not that I remember any of that anyway. "Abro la puerta" and "donde es el bano" I think I memorized. Lot of good that does me know. I could use an el bano about now too. GOtta find me a coffe stop here soon to uh, have a drink and check out the local bano's.

My duck migratory habits are still telling me to continue southward but now my brain is telling me to check into the local five star resort that has heat! I mean those kind of winds might tear the tent right off the roof of the jeep with me in it right? Tossing this around in my head I'm thinking I will leave the tent folded up and hunker down inside the jeep for warmth and safety. I best pick up a little inflatable mattress pad though because the rear of this jeep is not exactly a feather bed at all. THere's this gap with metal hinges right where the seats fold down that loves to dig into your hip only between the hours of 2:00 and 5 am. Ya know those critical sleeping hours! So I decide to stop at an REI store enroute (Outdoor recraeational equipment) in Cincinnati and see what they have to offer. THese stores are always awesome. Great competent help alongside quality equipment.

Well REI is now my only destination for the day!

I had looked at the map for ideas along this southerly pass but nothing seemed to call my name. No worries at all with this - I'm trying to take the spiritual kind of approach - that sometimes in life the "not knowing what's next" is the perfect spot to be. Releasing that "having to know" mentality is actually a stress buster I've learned too. I can get so caught up in having a plan (OK as an air traffic controller that was handy for sure : ) and focused on it in life that sometimes I wouldn't realize that - heck I don't want this plan anymore! Being so hyper focused can also cause us to miss other opportunities that present themselves along the way too.

((Taking a pause, breathing in that spot of not knowing can open up the heart and mind to so many other possibilities you would never have seen if you just kept going with your head down and plowing thru life at ninety mph. If you find yourself in one of these "in-betweens", perhaps something fell apart in life and you find yourself with no clear direction yet, embrace it! It's the Universe giving you that pause to take a look at things and see the next step that is meant for you and not one you think you need! This cross country trip is exactly that for me, like that slight pause between the exhale and inhale, so I can be sure before I breathe in my next move in life, it is more aligned with who I really am and not just what the world is telling me to do. If you find yourself here it may resemble more of a 'lost' feeling at first. Thats because we are always used to just going going going. Sit with the unknown for a bit until the next step presents itself. You don't have to see the entire staircase...just the next step.

After you take that first step the next one will appear. It's a step out in faith sometimes in our lives for sure. For me here, where am I gonna live come April? No idea! But it feels like the Universe is telling me that a five bedroom house with rent that is jacked through the roof now is kinda nuts! This house has served me for six years but now it feels like it's time is done. So do I stay in the WHB area or move elsewhere? This is on my mind as I put more miles and hours behind me.

I know that even just making the decision to leave that home - and actually telling the landlord now that I will not renew the lease - actually opens up all the other opportunities that would not have presented themselves to me had I not expressed that..first step taken! ))

I peg the store in the GPS and now as I'm flying down the road at like - OK just a teensie bit over the speed limit - I notice cars coming hard n fast right up behind me - like where ya going to dude?! This is Tennessee what's the rush!? I thought everyone moved a bit slower down here y'all? Wow glad nobody heard that : )

(OK honestly maybe in NY it's more like doing 86 mph and they still drive up your butt : )

So I noticed that after being just several days out of NY that I'm not focused on getting there "yesterday". Idon'thave the speedo peggged to an exact speed so as to get where I have to go as fast as possible. It's more of a "I'll get there when I get there" kind of approach...so much more relaxing! Less stress for sure.

In NY cars would literally come up behind you and it felt like they were trying to push you out of their way. You could even be over the speed limit (a teeny bit of course : ) and they'd still be waving at you with one finger to say hello I guess? Gosh I resonate so much more with just peacefully arriving when I arrive which does seem to be more of the pace as a whole down here.

Maybe in a past life I lived in the south? Drove a pickup? But I definitely don't like to chew. Well wait I mean I definitely chew. Food. Just not that stuff in the can. WTHeck is that all about? How did that become a thing? Then spit out gunk every few minutes!? Into a cup sometimes? Wow people grow up different huh!? I'm sure we NY'ers do some whacky stuff too. I do want to get me a cowboy hat though! Those are cool.

As I stopped for lunch I spent some time letting friends know about the website too thru texts ansd some calls..time well spent! It's so nice to have a group of all y'all with me reading and stuff...thanks for the shoutouts!

Even though my mind is telling me that man I could've been killing a road bike ride somewhere now instead of this...the relaxing downtime is paramount, its the yang to the active other moments...balance!

It's been raining everywhere so I decided to just keep rolling closer to Gatlinburg Tennessee which is now calling my name. I almost took my kids to Dollywood park there years ago. Never been a Dolly Parton fan but the area does have...huge tracts of land... (any Monty Python fans?). She does seem to be such an amzing person and artist though wow...gotta respect that.

I made it to London and decided I had enough driving for the day. London as in Tennessee. No Parliament here. No Queen. No Big Ben anywhere either. Big Bourbon maybe lol. Oooo that might be a goal for tomorrow if this weather keeps doin' what it's doin!

Bourbon tasting?

I got off the exit looking for a place to park and camp. Someplace safe enough where I won't wake up and find my jeep on blocks and the new wheels gone (is that the NY'er in me!?) and yet private enough that I can get some shuteye without the morning Starbucks crowd gawking at me in my tidy whiteys in the morning. (Sorry is that a bad visual!?) Ha!

I re-organized the gear in the back and busted ot the new mattress pad. Socool! As it unfolds it actually sucks in air all by itself and becomes the perfect cushion. I hunkered down as the temperatures dropped into the low thirties...lets see how this goes!

Inside

Lotsa driving today....

I can spend a lot of time looking inside and miss the outside! Or we can spend to much time looking outside and miss the inside! Funny how everything is a balance between the ying or the yang...or the good and the bad...or

Coins have two sides...

If I believe everything 'bad' so to speak can have an upside...I wonder...does everything good then have a bad side? Or better yet - just an opposite!?

There cannot be an upside unless there is a downside right? We define things in comparison to the opposite if we look closely...so if the opposite doesn't exist then...?

Whoa!! Getting a little deep here Ducky! Before ya know it you'll be buying a tract of land to start a commune or something. (Send all donations to Kreb Cycle bike shop in care of Duck Pond Pete's retirement fund...er...I mean...a beautiful love commune). Whooo geeez man I need a good ride lol!

But I do think this is where deciding to choose the good in everything though, or even just looking for it, then sparks the destiny of our own lives....puts us on a greater trajectory - I like that...

Also keeping the balance in our lives in anything - . Driving I can get into my own thoughts and lost in 'myself' and man if I did this kind of self reflection 24/7 I would probably end up like living in a cabin next to the Kazinski family! Opposing this if all I did was ride a bike outside and never reflect...I'd probably not have the awesome family and friends that I do. Time invested in their lives, something outside myself, has paid back dividends like I never could've imagined! Love y'all!

So important to insert oneself into the community, to socialize and make friends. Just for this reason lol! Iron sharpens iron right!? Well if you're only surrounded by yourself or the same 3 people everyday... those knives can only sharpen each other so much...then they just begin grinding each other down...

I just thought of Tom Hanks in that movie talking to his volleyball... as I found myself talking to lil Duckpond Pete on the dashboard. I think it's time to get out of this car and go for a ride! He agreed so I felt better about that lol.

Maybe I should see someone...like a therapist lol : )

Outside

Lots driving! I've been letting Spotify take my music listening on a journey also...it started with me selecting Jordan Davis music and it eventually spread out to JJ Grey and Mofro and Martin Sexton (wow I found his voice unbelievable!) (Chris Joinnides give 'em a shot...music feels real which I know you resonate with!). It was more of a bluesy feel which totally seemed to match the wet, cold dreary drive that I was finding myself in also...pretty cool. His voice whacked my soul like the rain hitting the windshield - totally give these artists a try...ya might find something appeals to you that you never thought would!

Or not.

All good lol.

Not much more outside...just rainy roads...

Upside

It is so cool to think I have this technology that lets me stay in touch with people like by texting or this blog! Shouts back...prayers for safety...feels so warm...

downside

In a car by myself listening to my own conversation for sure!!! (whoa kinda scary!)

Kaitlyn called, I'm missing making a latte with her and grabbing a lil hug from her in the morning.

The rain...I really would like to get outside for a bit!

Missing the community feel of Kreb Cycle in downtown Eastport NY...