1- Found out that my car radio has Sirius XM which I gather is digital radio. This is a godsend, not because of the extra clear programming but because I can finally see what station I'm on! I discovered this by pressing the button marked "Sirius" next to my radio... To be fair I did try this while I was in California but it didn't work, I think it said I hadn't paid my Sirius subscription or something.
2- Drove the wrong way down the motorway. This was pretty stupid but I think not my fault! The median was really hard to see and it was not until I noticed that the line in the middle of the road was white instead of yellow that I knew I was in trouble (it was a 65mph road where most people do about 80mph) Fortunately I was able to turn around and get out of there just in time to miss a head-on collision, as seconds later a whole set of cars and trucks came steaming down where I'd just been.
Ground Zero
On my way down to Greenville I stopped in Clarksdale to have lunch at Ground Zero, a juke joint (a live music, bluesy, grimy, graffiti covered dark cafe) which is owned by Morgan Freeman. They were super nice and gave me free sweet potato fries and sweet tea. Mississippi is known as the hospitality state and true to form the manager (not Morgan) came and sat at my table for a chat.
Greenville
I am now in Greenville, staying with Terry and James who are the parents of Carole who is the wife of Phillip who is the boss of Drea who is my friend in California- I met them at a fish fry so apparently that's not too tenuous a link.
Steak
We just went to dinner to Doe's Eat Place which, according to my Lonely Planet, has the best steak in the country (that is some claim!) and we had a 3lb steak. Let me say that again: THREE POUNDS!!! We shared it between the three of us and didn't finish it but still... dinosaur steak.
Other bits
Apparently some of you can see my videos so here is a bit of a road that made me giggle - it was like a very tame rollercoaster (this was take 2, I was going "wooo!" in the first one)
 |
| I think I found a ghost town |
 |
| There was NOBODY around |
 |
| I've seen this more than you'd think - a car pulling a truck |
 |
| Mississippi River!! |
SiriusXM comes in via satellite, not digital (so you may lose the signal if you're under a big bridge). There's probably a little "fin" on top of your car -- that's the satellite antenna. The U.S. equivalent of DAB is called "HD Radio," but I have yet to run across a car radio that can receive it.
ReplyDeleteI think SiriusXM is currently running a promotion where some of their channels are free to every radio, which may be what you're getting. Normally you only get SiriusXM in a rental car if it's brand-new, since new cars will come with a limited-time free trial, but then the rental car companies don't bother to renew and actually pay the monthly charge.
Hey I think you were right - a couple of days after you explained this it was all over. Boo. Back to podcasts.
Delete