The short story for the day is that I drove from one side of Tennessee to the other.
The longer story is that Poe and I took a rather long time to drive from Kingsport, Tennessee to West Memphis, Arkansas (yes, Memphis is actually in two states! ).
The day started earlier than planned, thanks to my furry travel buddy with the smallish bladder. My morning mood decided that I was going to be on a quest to find delicious vegan baked goods.
I wasnt far from Knoxville, so I picked one of the bakeries with vegan options at random and made for my first stop. I won’t even tell you where I stopped because maybe someone else would’ve eaten that cookie and not thought “granulated cardboard and imitation extract flavorings”. There appeared to be other customers coming in for their favorite items, so maybe I just picked (at the cashier’s suggestion) the least edible thing in the case. Their coffee was drinkable and, really, that’s the most important thing.
I figured I’d try again on my drive through Nashville.
I built up a bit of an appetite detouring through backroads and following signs for various locations (BIGGEST FLEA MARKET IN TENNESSEE! it wasn’t). Every 30 minutes or so on the highway brought me to another distraction. Poe had to potty, the car needed gas, that sign looked interesting, I wanted to take a walk, look-a-goodwill! I was NOT on target today. But Poe got lots of pets, I bought some cute skirts and chatted with some lovely people.
In Nashville I again chose a random bakery with vegan options, but this time I chose well! Vegan Vee had dozens of delicious looking options. I was surprised that I was able to narrow it down to three: a chocolate covered donut, a jelly filled donut muffin and a lemon blueberry muffin. These were fantastic. They were unlike anything I’ve ever tried, both less sweet and more flavorful. Most of the two muffins are going to be breakfast in the morning, but I was hard pressed not to eat it all.
Eventually Poe and I found our way to Memphis. I’d thought to check out downtown, but there’s been some unrest in town recently, so I settled in early.
As did Poe:
He’s been snoring noisily for a while now, so I guess he’ll be well rested for our drive across Arkansas to Tulsa, Oklahoma tomorrow.