Saturday, June 2, 2001: Almost There
The wake-up call came at six Central time, and it actually succeeded in getting Beth to arise (it most certainly was wasted on me). Once awake, this hotel wasn’t a hard one to leave quickly, but we were a little worried to find Callie sitting in the front window, considering that pets weren’t allowed. Oh well — we figured that, if we receive a call from someone asking why they’d seen a one-eyed calico cat in our hotel room’s window, we’ll just say,
“You saw a what?!”
Whisked rapidly toward the ready Montero were both the calico and the gray cats, semiconscious in their carriers, along with all our gear. The road called out to us, and soon our racing engine and spinning tires joined the chorus. This day was to be all about making time, and it helped that we only grabbed a drive-thru breakfast from BK. Blasting east, we stopped long enough in Oklahoma City for us to make an Internet hook-up from the Visitors’ Center outside the Air Force Base, during which time I finally sent the Day One dispatch and downloaded 55 more awaiting work emails and a few digital ‘cheers’ from several of you across the country; thanks to those — plus all the good vibes we’re picking up from everyone else rooting for us — we know we’re living a dream, and this trip has been a blast.
In trying to follow-through with the style of my original travelogue from our move to LA, I’m picking my spots to fill you in on the most notable sights and experiences from our trip; however, there’s so much that happens during days like these, it gets sort of tricky guessing the most important aspects to relate. Beyond the mile markers, the geography and the places written about on all the signs one sees, such a trip lets you see how other people live their lives, or sometimes it just shows you places where people appear to have no place nor any noticeable impact whatsoever. Reflecting on the highlights of these days, that seemed worth mentioning. Each day on the road, we saw a lot that just made us shake our heads in disbelief that people can do such strange things, but we’ve traveled enough now to know we still have a lot to learn — and that we do better when we respect others’ differences.
After screaming across cowboy country in Oklahoma, plus the vast Indian country which occupies the eastern side of that state, we cracked Arkansas, which not only had great highways, it also had lots of water all around on both sides of the road. State parks seemed to cover the first fifty miles, so needless to say, the area made a positive impression on us. Soon, though, the land got a little swampy and flat for our tastes. Little Rock barely registered, and unfortunately the rest of the state similarly fell away as the hours flew. Somewhere near the border for Tennessee, at last, we heard from BJ: He was honing-in on Nashville and expecting to rendezvous at 5pm Central there with my step-mom Peggy. He stopped driving at 8pm and Peggy was hot on his tail, having driven down through the afternoon from Greenville, Illinois, to prove her own road-warrior prowess.
At about 9 p.m. we’d made it to their stop: Crossville, Tennessee. We found them at the Cracker Barrel and joined them for dinner, before synchronizing our watches to coordinate Sunday’s last 160-mile part of our journey, set to end next to Rocky Creek in Boone, North Carolina….
Tomorrow, the new beginning. Stay tuned.
Love — Roger, Beth, cats, Amelia-to-be
Escape from LA by Roger Darnell
. Countdown: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 – The Countdown Begins
. Day 1: Thursday, May 31, 2001 – Simply Grand
. Day 2: Friday, June 1, 2001 – Catching Up
. Day 3: Saturday, June 2, 2001 – Almost There
. Day 4: Sunday, June 3, 2001 – Home At Last…
