Memphis Road Meet\ checking out the new I-269 April 2019

[cjk374]

In case anyone was curious about the miles I drove for this meet:

Friday:  360 miles to get from Louisiana to Memphis (US 165/AR 1/US 79/AR 50 (detoured to see Simsboro, AR)/AR 147/I-40/I-55/US 61 to my motel in Tunica, MS. Add about 90 more miles for the round trip to B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale St. and my total for Friday comes out to 450 miles.

Saturday: For the whole tour...which included me losing the group and getting lost twice like a big dummy    , I drove 270 miles.

Sunday: My daughter wanted to go to KY & MO so she could add two new states to her "I've been there" list. Went into the Missouri bootheel, then to the lonesome KY enclave. I wanted to ride the Hickman ferry to go back to Missouri, but my daughter was scared of riding a boat. Well, this created the need to go to US 51, stop at Wickliffe to see the Cross at the Confluence, and go over the river crossings at Cairo. So now my daughter got to go into a 3rd new state. So all of that, a stop at Lambert's in Sikeston, and clinching all of future I-57 on the way home brought Sunday's mileage to 727 miles.

Grand total for the meet: 1447 miles

[mattpedersen]

I wish I had more time clearance on Sunday to meet up with you at the Kentucky Bend, but I was super paranoid about missing the only flight back to Baltimore.

In case anyone was curious about the miles I drove for this meet:

Friday:  360 miles to get from Louisiana to Memphis (US 165/AR 1/US 79/AR 50 (detoured to see Simsboro, AR)/AR 147/I-40/I-55/US 61 to my motel in Tunica, MS. Add about 90 more miles for the round trip to B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale St. and my total for Friday comes out to 450 miles.

Saturday: For the whole tour...which included me losing the group and getting lost twice like a big dummy    , I drove 270 miles.

Sunday: My daughter wanted to go to KY & MO so she could add two new states to her "I've been there" list. Went into the Missouri bootheel, then to the lonesome KY enclave. I wanted to ride the Hickman ferry to go back to Missouri, but my daughter was scared of riding a boat. Well, this created the need to go to US 51, stop at Wickliffe to see the Cross at the Confluence, and go over the river crossings at Cairo. So now my daughter got to go into a 3rd new state. So all of that, a stop at Lambert's in Sikeston, and clinching all of future I-57 on the way home brought Sunday's mileage to 727 miles.

Grand total for the meet: 1447 miles

[oscar]

Many thanks to Jason for organizing the meet. The deli where we had lunch was an excellent choice. I took a pass on dinner post-meet, since the general preference was for a place with music (makes sense in Memphis), while I'm more of a meadow kind of guy.

I just got back home yesterday. As usual, my return routing was a little indirect, in this case reaching southeastern Oklahoma before passing through Memphis again, then traveling Tennessee from end to end.

Most of my return trip travels were on US routes rather than Interstates. Part of the appeal of going to this meet was to work on my coverage of the US route system. Post-meet, I clinched US 70 in Arkansas, adding to my previous clinches of that route in Tennessee and North Carolina. Later this year, I might finish off US 70 (missing parts in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma). Then heading back from Oklahoma, I clinched US 64 in Arkansas and Tennessee (still missing parts in every other state it passes through, from Arizona to North Carolina). I also finished off US 25E, after US 25W on my outbound trip. I now have over 75% of the U.S. route system, with primary and bannered (business, alternate, etc.) routes combined.

I also re-visited a few dozen counties I had previously visited only before I completed the U.S. in July 2010. My incomplete "round 2" map for the U.S. now covers more than 1250 counties, with more to be added (especially in the northeastern states) once I finish going over records of my road trips from late 2010 to 2016. One nice thing about traveling U.S. routes is they take you through a lot of county seats, as was true for this trip as well as about two-thirds of my "round 2" U.S. travels.

The overall length of my meet trip was about 3300 miles, over seven days. My car had almost 33,000 miles on it when I got back home, and I've only owned it for less than 11 months.