Corinthian Weather

Corinth, MS—It was late when I “walk and rolled” into town. The weather forecast was a bad one, with storms developing, severe ones, around midnight. Wolfing down a Chinese buffet meal, and then some wifi at a Jack’s restaurant (sort of a southern version of Jack in the Box, with decent but overpriced food), where I posted yesterday’s blog stuff, I headed west once more on Rt 72, the main and only constant road to Memphis. I assumed I’d have no problem finding a safe spot to set up the tent, but as I continued, things looked worse with each step. I was starting to get a little nervous, and tired, and wanted to sleep. I saw a family, very rough looking but at least they seemed to be a nice group. They were sitting on their front step smoking and watching some kids play. I asked the man of the group where I might set up. He suggested his back yard would be good. I looked at it and decided that a New York Ciry rat would have been nervous there and politely declined, sayding that I wanted to move a bit further west before calling it a night. He then suggested that I go to his church, called Cross Winds, and it would there. He hgave me the directions, and it was an easy enough walk, with daylight fading quickly. Churches have been good refuge for me on this trip and this was another good sign.
Until I got there. Walking past three police cruisers surrounding a suspect, I began to wonder how safe the area might be and when I got to the church itself, in a neighborhood that would generously be called a poor neighborhood, and truthfully would be called a ghetto, with nightclub right next door to the church and a bunch of gang bangers and weed smoking dudes hanging outside, I turned around and headed back. Consider my chops busted, I figured.
By now it was dark, and I was nervous about the rain coming, and as the first fleeting drops fell I had to do something. I saw a darkened building, a warehouse type of place with a driveway heading to the back on the right side and a fenced in lot on the left. I walked back quickly, to avoid being seen by the police or the drunks that were occasionally stumbling down the sidewalks.
The place was a wholesale distributor, and based on what I saw piled up inside, their main product was Bunn coffeemakers. There were a lot of pallets full of shrink wrapped boxes on the kloading dock, which was lines with trucks and a lot of junk. I found a half filled pallet and sat down on it. I figured it wodl be a good place to weather the storm.
Except the storm never came. The few drops that I had felt early were the only ones. It was a night full of weird noises, two sets of gunshots, footsteps running on pavement nearby, small trees waving in the lights and wind, throwing ghostly and creepy shadows, screeching tires, voices from somewhere out there in the darkness, and no sleep. Possibly the worst night of my trip so far, and it wasn’t over.
I left at a little after 5 AM and headed to a McDonalds down the street. I got breakfast, went online for a few, and was sitting there when I saw the sky looking very very strange. I took a couple shots and covered my cart with the tarp. I went back inside, surfed the net a bit and then saw that it now was raining pretty good. I figured I was okay sitting there for a while to wait it out. A whole night wasted avoiding a storm that never came and now, boom.
A glance at my cart brought me to a panic. The tarp was nowhere to be seen. I rushed outside, where I discovered that it had blown off and my stuff, sleeping bag, shoes (!) and socks (!!) were all soaked. A terrific start to an already crappy morning.
I threw on my rain poncho and headed down the road.....to Walnut, Mississippi. Would this Walnut experience be better than the Walnut Grove, Alabama experience? Stay tuned, faithful followers....