We’re on our way south, Bill and I, on a road trip to the southern US. Today, we crossed three states enroute to our first destination, Memphis, spending the whole day doing nothing but driving and enjoying the sights and sounds of the I-75. And I-65. And I-40.

There’ll be lots to write about once we get off the Interstate but after 1,500 km of driving over the last couple of days, here are five things we’ve learned:

• US baby boomers are facing a retirement crisis – this courtesy of the USA Today that was outside of our hotel room door this morning and that I read to Bill over the course of the day as he drove. There were many other negative stories in that paper too; in fact, if I were to base my views of the United States purely on what I read in that newspaper today, I’d think America was a pretty grim place. Luckily I know that’s not true – and am looking forward to discovering more of that in person over the next few days.

• You can still smoke in restaurants in Kentucky – I was shocked when we stopped for lunch today and the waitress asked us whether we wanted smoking or non. Coming from a province where this has been banned for years, it was a bit of a throwback to an earlier (and thankfully now-gone era).

• Tennessee was one big Civil War battleground – at a rest stop in Tennessee I picked up a lovely brochure that outlined the history of the US civil war through descriptions of battle fields in the state. From what I read, both the Confederate and Union armies criss-crossed the state indiscriminately for the four years of the war, killing, destroying and soaking the soil in blood as they went.

• Pretty much anywhere you stop along the Interstate will offer you huge volumes of cheap food. This is a post all on its own, this abundance of cheap food, but it never ceases to amaze me how much food these restaurants think one person is actually capable of eating in one sitting without regretting it five minutes later.

• And my personal favourite moment of the day – I discovered they have Diet Dr Pepper on the fountain at McDonald’s. Diet Dr Pepper is my absolute favourite pop and it can be hard to come by at home, so to find it readily available and in something other than a can was just the cat’s meow for me.

Next up: Graceland and Memphis.