On the road again
Evan and I started our westbound journey on Sunday morning. We’ve driven across Tennessee and this morning, we had breakfast in small town middle of nowhere, Arkansas, at the Kountry Kitchen Grille. The accents are adorable, people are freakishly nice, everything is so cheap, styrofoam is king and plastic bags abound. Arkansas in a nutshell.
The trip has been mostly just driving so far, except for a stop at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The museum facade is the Lorraine Motel, which is where MLK was assassinated. I only had about an hour to walk through the museum and that wasn’t nearly enough time. I could have easily spent half the day there. If ever find yourself in Memphis, I highly recommend checking this place out. The subject matter is a tough pill to swallow but also an important part of American history to have shoved in your face.
I am one of over six hundred graduating seniors at Central High School. As you know, graduation night is quickly approaching. It will be an evening which I and my many other classmates shall never forget.
At present there is a great deal of conversation among centralist over the trouble that will most probably arise if you should decide to be present to receive your diploma. Naturally you deserve your sheepskin as much as anyone else, and I would not stop you from getting it. However, there are, as you well know, many who would gladly do so. Therefore, I am asking you, Earnest, to please refrain from attending these exercises. It will be a time that I and hundreds of others do not wish to have marred. For the sake of your classmates and good common sense, please give your utmost consideration to this.
I hope that you will let unselfishness and good judgement dominate your decision.
-A worried senior
And then we drove some more. Driving feels like cheating after having spent so much time walking. How have we made it almost 900 miles in less than three days? This should have taken two months. I miss walking. Le sigh. At least I remember how to drive well enough after five months off to have not crashed the car (yet).
I’m currently in Tulsa, where we had lunch at a restaurant with vegan burgers and kombucha on the menu, next to a Warby Parker and Lululemon. Color me surprised. I knew nothing about Tulsa before coming here, but those were the last things I was expecting to see here.
Tomorrow, we’re off to Austin where we’ll meet up with my friend Adam, a Bay Area exile. After that, we’ll be far south enough to not freeze while sleeping in a tent. We’ve got some more hiking and camping in our near future!
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