Here We Are

We left Sunnyside on Saturday am, loading up the back of the car with the knitting. The knitting took up the entire back space so all our bags had to occupy the passenger seat in the front.



By Saturday evening, we were in Roanoke, Virginia. I am sure it is a lovely place but as it was pitch dark when we arrived, we saw very little. Despite my best efforts to find hotels on-line that were in downtown areas, not on the highway, we were, in fact, on a strip where the only food options were Hardee's and something called "Jersey Lily's." And McDonalds, but that is not an option in my book. So we went to a grocery store instead. Simple but it worked and we were set for breakfast as well. This was good since our next day's destination was Memphis - a twelve hour drive. And we made it! It was a long day but we ended up at the Heartbreak Hotel, which is run by Elvis's estate. It was pretty funny and a real education for Finn and Lucy, who kept asking why so many people love Elvis so much that they need a special hotel for them. A hard question to answer, my dears.


Still knitting. Is that why they call it the Heartbreak Hotel?

And today...Dallas! We made it!

Throughout this whole trip I have felt very strongly that I am stranger here. It feels very weird to me to head south and west. Most of my travels have been north and east. I am comfortable heading north and east. I don't know from south and west. And so it is that I discovered that the south, with its very visible love of Jesus and Cracker Barrel, feels as foreign to me as any trip to Europe I have ever taken. I realized that I don't know the ways of this world, that all my usual ways of obtaining goods and services no longer work here. I hardly know the language even. It is a strange feeling. But it is fun too. To be a stranger can give one a lot of leeway, which I hope to take advantage of as much as possible in the next few days.


Here is a car wash in Texarkana, Texas. The picture isn't very clear, but it is called the 15:13 car wash, and the numbers refer to Biblical scripture which is quoted on the white panel on the side of the building. Who knew the lord spoke on keeping your car clean?

My final, somewhat disjointed, three-days-in-a-car thought is that, when I imagined this place (Dallas) and its relationship to cars, well, I really didn't know the half of it. It is intense! I think the project is very, very appropriate. But will anyone slow down enough to see it?