Found Our Beach!

LA/XC-5 DAYS TWENTY-TWO, TWENTY-THREE, TWENTY-FOUR, AND TWENTY-FIVE: POSTING FROM TUPELO, MS

Four-day mileage from Fort Stockton, TX to Tupelo, MS: 1,249.9

Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 6,279.7

Road Music: Friday: Mostly politics.  Very cool speech by Obama in support of Hillary; almost as good as Michelle’s speech the day before; then, all Trish Murphy all the time “ahead of” (as

they like to say on CNN) sitting in on her gig in San Antonio.  Saturday:  Sirius Cycle, and then, as the Beagle Man Band rolls into Port Arthur, TX — birthplace of Janis Joplin — my entire Janis catalogue.  Sunday: More Janis as Kemba and I trace through Port Arthur on my Janis Joplin, this-is-your-life tour; next, NFL Radio for a Football Sunday, wrapping up with “All Songs” on shuffle (“A Guy Walks Into a Bar,” Tyler Farr; “Drumming Song,” Florence + the Machine;  “no ones going to love you,” Band of Horses.  Monday:  Sirius cycle, All Songs, cont.

Weather leaving Fort Stockton on Friday: 68 degrees and partly cloudy

Weather arriving Tupelo on Monday: 80 degrees and sunny

Four-day state tally: 3 (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi)

Gas money to date: $673.34

Kemba’s eyes bugged out!  He ping-ponged frantically between the shotgun seat and back seat, unable to contain his excitement.  After mile after mile after mile of scrubbed desert and parched dirt . . . a beach!  A brand-new ocean!  New people to win over!  And a labradoodle-husky mix named Bear — pronounced Bar by his very bayou owner — to play with!  And we never would have found our way to Holly Beach on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana if it hadn’t been for Shanette.

Working the front desk at Port Arthur’s

Towneplace Suites by Marriott (hold that Marriott thought for a moment), Shanette, intuiting the types of outings I had in mind for my dog, took it upon herself to google and print me directions to Doornbos Heritage Park in Nederland (a pond! ducks!), then to Holly Beach in Louisiana, and finally on to New Orleans, my next overnight.  And the Holly Beach excursion wasn’t only perfect for getting Kemba back into the surf; it was also

about seeing a whole region — the Gulf Coast — I’d never been to before.  Beautiful Highway 82 along the shore; miles and miles of primary-colored beach houses on stilts; a landscape of cool greens and blues after days of endless brown and tan; causeways, waves . . . and the Gulf of freaking Mexico!

It was Shanette’s random act of kindness that shot Towneplace Suites by Marriott to the top spot in the latest Motel Chain Power Rankings!  Well, not officially, since the one in Port Arthur is the only one I’ve stayed at — but you can bet I’ll be looking out for them in the future!  Big development, though:  La Quinta has toppled Best Western from the top spot.  The Best

Western “Plus”‘s are still primo, but when it comes to the regular motels, La Quinta has been kicking Best Western’s butt for weeks now.

But wait!  Still have to double back to Friday in San Antonio.  After a boyhood as a coonskin-cap-wearing president of the Davy Crockett fan club (not really, but could have been), after singing his exploits to my sons as a lullaby when they were little, I finally got to see the Alamo!  Yes, true, it’s way tinier than you’d expect, as I’d been told, but still cool, nonetheless.

And this was just a warm-up for the Main Event in San Antonio: a performance by the lovely and talented Trish Murphy — only my favorite singer/songwriter on the
planet! — along with her band, Skyrocket, at Sam’s Burger Joint, San Antone’s great live music showcase.  Which I almost didn’t get to, thanks to a no-show by a dog-sitter I’d lined up a month ago — the old “my car broke down on the highway and I’m waiting for a tow truck” routine.  So what did I do?  I didn’t go to pieces, which was my first instinct.  Instead, I calmly (sort of) scrolled back down the list of local sitters who’d responded to my original posting, pleaded with them via e-mails marked “EMERGENCY!” . . . and the evening was salvaged by Amanda the Lifesaver.  Missed pre-gaming with Trish because of the snafu, but still got to hang with her between sets and after the show.

And then it was on to Port Arthur to visit my other favorite Texas female

vocalist, only this one —Janis Joplin — alas, wouldn’t be performing live.  Had an absolute blast chasing around to all her childhood spots (kind of like the day during LA/XC-4 when I pulled off the

interstate in Oklahoma “Where 69 meets

40″ to see Carrie Underwood’s hometown of Checotah), stopping at St. Mary’s Hospital (where Janis was born), Tyrell Elementary School, home of the Tyrell Titans (where she attended grades 1-6), and her childhood home at 4330

32nd Street, a cute little house on a cute little tree-lined street.

Monday morning, Kemba and I speed-toured NOLA’a French Quarter.  New Orleans isn’t really K’s kind of town: too

much pavement, not a lot of grass, jackhammers, car horns, cases of beer being tossed off trucks to the sidewalk in front of him, yappy local dogs — that whole Bourbon Street bustle.  It was a little tough

on me, too, running a gauntlet of the world’s best food smells and not being able to stop and eat at any because I had a dog with me.  So instead of dining on po’ boys, gumbo, and beignets in the food capital of America, I wound up with my Clif Protein bar in the car en route to Tupelo, where — speaking of dead superstars — I’ll be visiting the birthplace of Elvis momentarily.  And then, on to Lynchburg, to see my good ol’ friend Jack Daniels.

RANDOM ROAD NOTES:

• Most enchanting roadside signs (and this region has tons of ’em): CHEW ROAD . . . OLD AND LOST RIVER . . . TURTLE BAYOU . . . HOG ISLAND GULLEY . . . BUCKS & DUCKS SPORTS BAR . . . “HOLD A BABY ALLIGATOR!” (Jennings, LA) . . . HONEY ISLAND SWAMP . . . and one of my all-time favorites:  PICAYUNE

• Just realized: Haven’t been to — in fact, haven’t even seen — even one Applebee’s on this trip.  How is this possible?

•  For those of you in the running in the Guess the Total Mileage Contest:  Now that Matt’s defected over to the Lady Gaga tour and I’ve swapped out the Bourbon Trail in favor of a visit to the Jack Daniels Distillery, the contest winner will be getting a bottle of Jack instead of a Kentucky bourbon.  No worries: If you don’t drink it, I will.

I PLAN TO POST AS CLOSE TO DAILY AS POSSIBLE WHILE KEMBA AND I ARE ON THE ROAD. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY: MAN PLANS, GOD LAUGHS. OH, AND BTW, YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND INSTAGRAM.