Day 14: Waverly, TN to Jackson, TN (67.4 miles, 948.4 total, 29.4 mph max)
It's 6 am and I just woke up. It thunderstormed from 1 to 4 last night. It was worse than the 2 previous storms. There are puddles in the tent. My sleeping bag is soaked. I sat here for the duration of the storm. It was so bad that I packed all of the stuff in an emergency bag. I really thought there was a tornado. I was imagining getting out of here by the skin of our teeth and having to go home. I hate Tennessee.
The river rose at least 15 feet overnight. That's no exaggeration. The entire campground moved inland around midnight. We're surrounded by campers now, while we were all alone when we went to bed. What a night. I hope I never have another like it.
The day was hot again. We stopped in Jackson and are camping next to a silver bus behind GG's restaurant. I want a shower so bad. Memphis tomorrow. I hope it stays nice tonight.I remember that night like it was yesterday. The ground under the tent became so saturated that it was as if we were sleeping on a water bed. This one, however, had plenty of leaks and we were drenched. It was not dark because the bright flicker of lightning was constant through the night. Chris and I were concerned of two things: the river rising up around us, and high winds lifting our tent off the ground. Neither of these seemed implausible and as much as I wanted to look out of the tent to see what was going on I couldn't because I was worried about how much weather would come in with the flap open.
The funny thing about a trip like this, from my own experiences as well as accounts from others, is that they often suffer from an acute case of "greener grass" syndrome. In Virginia, we couldn't wait to be in Tennessee. Now that we were in Tennessee, we hated it and were certain Arkansas would be great. I did another cross-country trip in 1999 (no journal, but I intend to try to piece it together after I'm done with this project) and the team suffered from it then as well. On backpacking trips, road trips, and even river trips, what's around the bend seems to always hold promise. I suppose it's the nature of adventure travel. The destination is not the objective, it's the journey. Continuing to keep moving is the best motivated by the curiosity over what lies ahead.
Here are some more photos:
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The roadside, the day after the Tennessee River rose over 10 feet overnight.
Yeah, that was a fun night (sarcasm) As I sleep really deeply, I just remember you waking me up with wild eyes. I asked what was up and you told me to feel the bottom of the tent. It was totally like a water bed and the tent was dripping in on us. I thought we decided to try sleeping through it since the water didn't completely come in, thankfully. Unfortunately I don't remember too much more about that but getting set-up behind the silver bus and laying out all of our equipment to dry with what sunlight we had left. Still missing my journal. But I know it will show up eventually, hopefully within, the next four weeks (of writing). I'll keep you posted.
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