Closing the Loop

Defacing

I finally got a Tennessee drivers license.  I did this for many reasons;  one being that I have finally, after exactly four years, accepted I no longer live in California and besides, I was coming dangerously close to becoming a jury-duty fugitive (which is very unlike me because I happen to love jury duty). Another reason is that I figure I should probably vote this year, if only to stay in fashion. I took a free bumper sticker from the Obama campaign so it is the only right thing to do.  (Tennessee happens to be one of the states that adopted one of those totally wack voter ID laws). The other big reason is that I had to re-up my Memphis Library Card and those folks there are real sticklers about residency.

With my new schedule I have had more time, but less money to research so I have been hitting the ol BenjHooks Library like crazy.

Their new books section is fantastic. Really.  I've already read the new Julia Childs bio, a war memoir from a soldier who disarmed bombs, and a couple insane diet books (those are my favorite. I am drinking a beer right now). I'm currently reading a true crime book called "People Who Eat Darkness" and it is giving me terrible panic attacks and nightmares (sign of a great book). But all of those are really time wasters that are distracting me from my astrology and Nancy R research.

What my research is uncovering (in addition to straightforward historical facts) is that people interested in Nancy R and Astrology are hands down, the most vanadolous, criminal-minded bunch of all library goers!  One book about Nancy had pictures carefully exacto-bladed out in sharp squares!  To cut photos out and return them as if nothing happened? Bold!

And nearly every astrology book that features a worksheet or astrology blank has writing in it!  Look at the posted example! Morrie! Pink pen!? Has no one ever heard of a photocopier?

I guess it is hard to have nice things for pblic property. Especially when the library only requires a TN driver license and not a full astrological chart to check out books.  You can trust a gal who takes years to let go of the west coast, but you cannot, ever, trust a gemini with a pink pen!

Cooling Out

It dropped over ten degrees over the weekend! It was actually safe to be outdoors for more than ten minutes so B and I drove down to the Hummingbird Migration Celebration in Holly Springs, MS. 

Hummingbirds are tiny. Real tiny. And fast. Real fast. They have a resting heartbeat similar to that of a grown man on cocaine: 250bpm. Because they are tiny and happen to be on their way to South America, there isn’t a whole lot of actual bird action to see at this celebration without some effort and patience. We waited in line to see them tagging the lil fellers. They do this to collect scientific data on their migration.

They lure them in with sweet bird feed and then plop them in white netted bags. This to me was the most visually disturbing image of the day (so I got a picture – see below) but it is for science so I say bag em up!

After they measure, weigh, and tag the birds, a lucky bystander gets to stet it free back in the wild. I really wanted to to this and feel that at my advanced age, my contributions to society are greater than any small child and I deserve to feel a freshly un-bagged hummingbird in the palm of my hand, but some aggressive mom had been behind us in line for fifteen minutes working on the volunteers with a screechy story how her son “really wanted to let one go back in the wild.” Of course, when the time came, the passionate five-year old birder was off somewhere looking for ice cream. So when they asked the crowd who wanted to let it go, all of the adults were super busy being polite and embarrassed while a young couple stepped up and handled business. Although I think the teenage girl was giggling too much to appreciate the delicacy of the situation, I was happy to see the bird fly off (to Chile, I imagine). 

(measuring a beak – they hold it in a nylon foot sock – the kind you use when trying on pumps at Bakers -  seriously!)

This fatso weighed in at 3.5 grams!

The Strawberry Plains Audubon Center is lovely. I would go back there even if they weren’t selling home-made pickles and hummingbird crafts.

We stopped at Phillips Grocery for burgers on the way back. If you haven’t been to Holly Springs, I think one could safely say that it offers the total southern tourist package: Graceland Too, Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, Phillips Grocery, and lots of kudzo.

According to legend, Phillips Grocery was originally a saloon in the 1800s. It is located near an old railroad depot on the outskirts of town. There are about ten things on the menu including fried pies and tater tots. So you should go there.

Stumped.

That is a giant tree stump I found on a short hike on a recent trip out west. I meant to take a picture of my hand in front of the camera to show scale but then I realized I would have nothing to show for perspective. Trust me. It was a large and dirty stump. Very rooty – quite actually ripped from the earth and toppled over on its side, waiting to be overtaken by rain, moss, and worms. Kind of like this blog.

I am hoping for a rain, moss, and worm revival come fall.

New Jersey My Love

Due to the derecho last week, it took 30 hours to get to Newark, but it was worth it to see my family and to finally check out this place:

 

We also went to the Thomas Edison National Historic Park (aka: Where America Was Invented) in West Orange.

This is a where he took naps and pre-invented stuff like the movie camera and portable batteries:

And here are some snaps of his factory and office:

 

Prototype of a record changer phonograph:

Bonus: On the way out to Newark we flew over a sweet sunset and then a lightening storm that lasted forever.  If you haven’t flown above a super active lightening storm at 30,000 feet then you really haven’t seen anything that spectacular.

Into the Wild

…blue yonder.   Killing time before my flight east. Check leTumblr for travel pics of New Jersey diners.

Kayekilla Pan-a-View

1. Mississippi River near Harbor Town in Memphis
2. Cotton King and Queen gear at The Pink Palace
3. Crystal Bridges, AR
4. Mini Golf on Summer Ave in Memphis
5. The Ridgeway Malco Theater in Memphis
6. Tuba Museum in Okemos, MI
7. Hot air balloons in Howell, MI

Sizzling. Hot. Meat.

At the Summer Drive In from kayekilla on Vimeo.

Shooting Nature

Been out.

Lofty Ideas

For those of you that don’t know, I am newly liberated and have been traveling a lot lately. Metaphorically and quite literally – like see this photo of me on the moon?

More importantly, I’ve been cooking up some ideas for the next great blog project and it got me thinking that so much blogging and internet content nowadays is kind of “stunt” writing – you know, like when people are like “I am going to take one photo a day of this” (ok, that can be pretty cool) or “I will write about the weather in LA every day for a year” (ok I did that). It makes me wonder if this is something I should fight against or just give into. Am I destined to be a stunt blogger?

Here are a few ideas I have been tossing around:

• Strike up a conversation about __________ with one stranger a day
• Entering the underground culture of sweeping
• Start an advice column where I have my girlfriend from the west coast, mid-west, and the south answer (no one needs east-coast advice, JK)
• One craft a day from my thrifted craft books
• Anything to do with truck-driving school
• Adventures in starting my own spray tan business
• A daily investigation/analysis into/about one of the following dusty books on my bookshelf: Southern Living’s Travel South (a book obtained from Idontknowwhere??), Dena Kaye’s The Traveling Woman, Story Structure Architect, Backstage Pass by Angela Bowie, Put Offs and Come Ons: Psychological Maneuvers and Stratagems by A.H. Chapman, M.D., Photomontage by Dawn Ades, or Day Trips From Memphis by R Finlayson and S Sprott Pace.  (I may never finish this blog post if I keep looking at all the weird books I have)

Any other suggestions for stunt blogging are appreciated. Until then, I am off to eat some Soul Fish.

Side-seat Driver

I stopped taking odometer photos (usually taken to document each stop) after the 202.9 mile mark of my 765-mile trek back home. Something happened after the first 200 miles and it was nothing but me, my thoughts, (and the audiobook version of “Freedom” – which I rather liked, maybe I am Franzen’s target audience, maybe I enjoy reading character studies of midwestern people after hanging out with midwestern people), and the road.

I might have been eager to hurry on home because I knew I wasn’t going to get to see the Fairmount James Dean/Garfield museum or stop at the Louisville Slugger Factory or maybe because I knew my trunk was full of more alcohol than I consumed in the first half of 2012. (Michigan has cheap wine and my dad likes to buy me six-packs of Kid Rock’s Bad Ass beer.) I know it isn’t illegal or anything but it’s not like my trunk has temperature control so there were many factors and varieties of grapes to consider.

When I arrived back home a little after 8pm on Thursday night, I was in a daze of highway hypnosis. I looked over at the passenger seat and saw:

• The spilled contents of a half bag of sunflower seeds
• 2009 edition of “the Next Exit”  - thanks KFW
• Three different kinds of chapstick/lip balm
• A notebook and pen (I can drive with my knees when I have to) with one entire page taken up by the scribbley word/s:  BERNE, IN
• Two half-empty bottles of water (plastic)
• Napkins from Arby’s and Love’s travel stops

I’m an experienced roaddawg, but I’ve noticed that as I get older, the road stays the same age – no seriously, I mean, my trips take on different dimensions (special thanks to B’s mom for the different dimension phrase). I don’t remember much from this one except: not taking phone calls (even practically hanging up on my own mother who was calling to check in on a traffic jam), texting and photographing while operating my vehicle at high speeds, and driving straight west into the setting sun - half-blind and fueled on curly-fries (especially dangerous considering the high-MSG content)! I was probably more dangerous out there than any trucker or teen-driver hopped up on speed, bath-salts, and fake gas-station marijuana, but I made it back all in one piece with only a dirty windshield to worry about. The road is truly one of my favorite miracles of life.

Michigan, Sweet Peninsula of Dreams and Magic

Lady sawed in half at American Museum Of Magic in Marshall, MI. Flea Circus from there too.  Heading west on G-D River road at 9:45pm. Michigan Challenge Balloon Fest in Howell, MI. Pre-storm sky and blurry bird in backyard Fowlerville, MI. Old basketball court at Fowlerville Community Park. Community pool at Grosse Point Park. Lil nephew smooching  giraffe at Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, MI.  (some photos from my tumblr)

I will miss this place. Back to Memphis tomorrow!

Michigan List Pt 2

American Museum of Magic
Colon, MI
Fireflies (reminder to self: google "how to photograph fireflies")
Seventh Day Adventist Village
Ducks or something squawking outside my window in the early morn.
Hot air balloon racing
Grosse Pointe Parks and pools
Binder Park Zoo
10:10pm sunsets
Perfectly reasonable wine prices

Photos of Meals

Yeah yeah, I understand that thisiswhatwehadfordinner food pictures are made for registered yelp users and roadfood.com enthusiasts and personal blogs of people that take pictures of their food and their feet in crazy places, but consider this a genre post. And consider that you are looking at a baby greek salad from National Coney Island. You can't get that anywhere.
Only in Michigan.

Did you know the term Michigander was coined by Abe Lincoln?

My Michigany list this week:

People stopping by (Michigan small towny)
Pop (I've had a lot of it here)
75 mph MINIMUM,ok?
Sightings of new/test Chevy/Ford vehicles
Farms, cherries, beets, apples
Chicken Shawarma (I dream of the old La Sish when they still had gobs of weapons on their walls)
Kellogg Sanitarium
Unsolved small town murder

Made It All These Miles

Got in way, way later than I anticipated. Wouldn't have been a big deal if my night vision hadn't been impaired by bug-guts-on-the-windshield glare for the last hour.  Forgot about the time zone change, ran into a couple traffic jams, and some surprising slow fast food service in southern Indiana.

All of that will get you to a place called Pure Michigan.

Strange Sightings

It's been a weird couple weeks. For example, I saw these guys dressed up like lime heros driving down Walnut Grove waving at people and falpping their lime capes around and I spotted a vanity plate that said YU1DRNG.  Did the owner of that plate know I would be wondering about chubby dudes dressed up like green fruity super heros?

I'll be back on the road soon. My tumblr will be the place to check for updates.  More content here soon.