Almost on the road

24/03/08 12:05
24-03-08 050
We have checked into our first real roadside motel on the outskirts of Athens, Georgia. Admittedly, we had expected to go somewhat further, but all the car rental places in town were closed due to the EasterSunday holiday. Tomorrow, however, all that is gonna change. We are renting a car at the local Enterprise Rent-A-Car, heading towards ... well, originally we wanted to go to Nashville, Tennessee, but considering our future itinerary we might opt for Birmingham, Alabama, instead. Whatever we end up doing, we will fill you all in shortly.

For now, we are enjoying the peace and quiet of the Travelodge. Standards are a bit lower than at the Super 8 Downtown Motel in Atlanta, but so are the prices. Catching a decent meal proved somewhat harder than expected, again due to the Easter Sunday holiday. We ended up at a 24 hour diner epitomically named "The Grill". Burgers and fries were decent, and so were the coffee we got from the local gas station on the way home. Unfortunately, we forgot to buy water, so now I am stuck with the chlorine-infested liquid that pours from the motel tap. I tried to pick us up something a bit more decent at the vending machine downstairs, but I did not really seem to accept my choice of water. Instead, it dropped a can of Sprite on me. Just can't beat the sugar around here!

On the bed next to mine, Kristian has settled down for a televised game of baseball. I think I will go for William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying instead. After all, we are in the south, and the guy actually did win the Nobel Prize sometimes back in the 1940s. Anyway, I finished Joe Queenan's America yesterday - and boy! was it cool! A sometime movie critic, the poor snob's flirtations with American pop culture got him hooked so badly he had to go cold turkey in Paris. Writing about his horror tour of Suck, he compares his orginally vague awareness of the existence of Michael Bolton to his similarly vague awareness of the Ebola virus plague in Africa. Discussing the absurdity of front page quotations in mainstream bestsellers, he even goes as far as suggesting a Danielle Steele quote to kickstart The Satanic Verses with: "His eyes drank her in like wine, and she looked up at him with a small smile".

Thanks to my local supplier of underground movies and literature back home for this particular parting gift. Jan, you're the man!
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