Cross-country

Being American is an important part of who I am but I had never really spent any time in the United States. Before heading out to my next post, I decided to get to know my countrymen and learn what it is that makes them tick. What better way to do that than a cross-country road trip to explore the burgs and metropolises and meet the hicks and socialites that make up this great nation?

My path led me through Appalachia and into Memphis where I spent a couple nights marinating in barbeque sauce and blues. My traveling companions found a much needed respite on Beale street where the road is closed to cars and opened to pedestrians, live music, and rib joints. The sippy cup station on my stroller was employed as a beer holder and my sister was overcome with emotion by the “Cinderella” coaches pulled by horses throughout the city.

We continued to Arkansas and happened to pass through Hope, boyhood home of Hillary Clinton’s husband. I stopped to pay my respects and soak up some success. This will be a cute little picture when I am president one day and the press corps asks me for anecdotes about how I became interested in the executive office. I first got the idea that a girl could be president by watching the 2008 primary race. I just hope I am not the first girl to do it. The following day we passed Crawford, Texas but we did not stop as there was nothing of interest to see there.
Peering out the car window I was able to see the world go by me backwards and I saw that everything began to look the same – Starbucks, CVS, Taco Bell, KFC then we would pass an outlet mall and the whole series would start over again – Starbucks, CVS, Taco Bell, KFC. I had the sensation I was in an old Flintstones cartoon where lazy animators preferred to reuse a small section of background footage rather than delving into the creativity for which they were supposedly hired. The effect was that when Fred ran through his house he passed the same side table with a vase of flowers over and over again until he reached the front door.

I started to suspect there was a sameness of experience that was afflicting my countrymen. I looked forward to my next adventure in Mexico and the novelties that awaited me there. And I was not disappointed as I rolled across the border to an awesome site: a standing ovation of saguaro cactus, snapped to attention on the desert plain with their arms in the air, cheering my arrival. The scenery south from Tucson across the Sonora Desert was golden and rocky all the way to my destination in Hermosillo, Mexico where I finally settled into my new house after a long journey. Thank God it was wedged comfortably between an Applebee’s and a Dairy Queen – girl cannot live on tortillas alone.Un beso,
Lainey