Where to begin, how to begin? as the Dead have noted elsewhere, what a long strange trip it's been. i'm going to have to think awhile on how to sort out the people, events and places of this trip and write in coherent fashion about it all. getting my picture CD's back will help. maybe.
For now, just wanted to check in and say hello - let people know i'm alive and well and home. i traveled back (despite all the motherly advice in the entry i posted after i got to Dallas) the same way i traveled down: leaving Thursday and driving until i couldn't drive anymore, then sleeping a few hours in a rest area in TN. yes, Tennessee. about which i promised to say more. and will. then driving the rest of the way yesterday. made it home about nine p.m. last night. had to sleep a little in the hot afternoon at a rest stop in Virginia, where i also walked around quite a lot. and managed somehow to acquire what seems to be poison ivy! after avoiding it in all kinds of wild places in TX.
Tennessee certainly has fabulous rest stops - clean, well lighted restrooms, big well lighted parking lots, separate areas for cars and larger vehicles (campers, trucks), an attendant on duty all the time. so, really, everyone - i felt perfectly safe sleeping in my locked car. and i had lots of company. i pulled in earlier than most, and left earlier than most - so the parking was pretty empty when i pulled in, but by the time i woke up and headed out, it was full of vans, pickups, small campers, full of other sleepers. they were families, couples, and other single drivers. it was actually kind of a nice communal feeling, road warriors at rest.
The thing about the state of Tennessee, which i agree with the comment in the previous entry is a beautiful beautiful place, is that (outside of the big cities) the airwaves are full of truly scary (to me) "Christian" programming and almost as scary country music. as well as permutations that combine the two. there were also lots of side-of-the-road "Christian" signage. a trucking company (St. Michael's), for instance, had a mess of sign boards advertising their "christian values." as well as oneletting me know that "Jesus is our driving force." that one made me long to actually see one of their trucks and get a look at the driver. the "christian" radio preaching that i left on the dial long enough to get an idea of its content was mainly on the subject, the only subject, the subject Bush is chatting up today (in order to take everyone's mind off the Senate committee's report on the worthlessness of the intelligence that flung us into war????): the evils of gay marriage, nay the total necessity of protecting everyone else's marriage from us queers. yeah, i found it all a little scary. enough so that i actually worried about the Kerry bumper sticker, and the "Peace" window sticker on my car. probably entirely needlessly. we've kept this new car relatively free of bumper stickers, but the old Mazda pickup is not something i'd sleep in, on the road. it's covered with political and cultural stickers. many so faded they're nigh unto unreadable now.
On the subject of radio while traveling down the interstates - let me say if i suddenly fell heir to two million dollars (weekend assignment a couple of weeks ago) i now know exactly what i'd do with most of the second million. give it to Nation Public Radio. hell, maybe ALL of the second million. the fact that i could pick up a Public Radio station when i got close enough to places like Roanoke, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas, and hang on to it well past town, kept me sane through the preaching and country music. yeah, i had my own music with me, but i'm pretty bored with most of it - and without Morning Edition, Diane Reem, All Things Considered, Day to Day, etc. i'd have been really lonely, as well as a lot more ignorant of what's been going down since i've been gone.
oKAY, i've got to read the 288 emails that piled up in my absence (mainly political/environmental stuff from organizations i belong to, i turned off all my alerts), read some journals, find out this weekend's assignment. i have discovered that Alphawoman's journal is numero uno this week on the editor's pick. way to go, Mary! you so deserve it!!!
4 comments:
Welcome back, Mary Ellen. You didn't become a southern Baptist, did you?
I was wondering what had you so worried on your trip through our fair state. I was worried that you had been accosted or molested or something. I understand now! Yes, the radio stations around here can certainly be scary -- esp. in the rural areas. Sometimes, it's like stepping back into the 1950's, or even the 1850's. We're not all like that, I swear!
I'm glad to see you back safely!
I've been to Tennessee many times (since I'm from Kentucky and, you know, one's right on top of the other) and I always get that same feeling, driving through. First, that Tennessee is almost as beautiful as Kentucky, and second, that there seem to be no radio stations other than country and gospel. I like to think that Kentucky is different, but really, down in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, it's the same kind of thing.
I usually take a lot of CDs with me and avoid the scary radio.
So that's why no answering the phone yesterday. I'm so sorry you've had to be slathered in pink calamine, calayours, caladryl. I hope the benadryl helped temporarily, and I do hope you've gotten some real relief by now. You're right--the E.R. would have been worse, I fear. Keep us posted.
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