August 25, 2005, [MD]
As some of you might know, I had very ambitious plans for yesterday. I was scheduled to leave Fayetteville at 8:15 in the morning, spend a few hours on the bus to get to Little Rock, visit Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library for a few hours, go on to Memphis, spend all evening walking around there, and leave with the nightbus for New Orleans. Then I would have a whole day (arriving very early in the morning) to walk around, and another nightbus would take me to Gainesville, GA, where I was scheduled to visit a couple that lives on an ecological farm. An uncharacteristically stressfull schedule, but it meant I wouldn’t have to pay for any hotels, and would still at least get a bit of an impression of a lot of sights.
Things didn’t really work out that way. Somehow, and I am not sure if I did anything wrong, of if this is just how routes work, I ended up going from Fayetteville to Fort Smith to Texarcana which is in Texas! back up to Little Rock. All in all, I was in Little Rock at 5:40PM, and of course had to continue straight on to Memphis (I did see the library from the window - so near, and yet so far away). I arrived in Memphis with an hour and a half to spare until the nightbus, having been travelling since 7:30 in the morning, waiting in bus depots all over Arkansas…
Yet, I figured I’d try to catch a bit of air, so I left my big bag on the floor outside the New Orleans-bound bus, took my small bus and trudged out. Magically, within an hour, I had not only been able to have a delicious vegan burger and fries at Denny’s, but I also caught a part of a great open-air jazz concert in the park, completely by chance. People were dancing, the musicians were playing, the Memphis skyline was glowing, and I thought: Thank you, Memphis… It wasn’t all for nothing. I promise I’ll come back some day!
Stian
Stian Håklev August 25, 2005 Toronto, Canada comments powered by Disqus