Road Trip - Day 7- Jill & Dallas
Wednesday July 12, 2000
After my two wonderful hours of sleep I got up and fixed myself a bowl of cereal. Then I wrote some in this and hit the road around 9:30. Quite an early start, but I had a whole lot of driving to do today.
And besides a few brief stops, driving was all I did today. I had to drive the entire state of Arkansas and go through Texas till Dallas. I sped the whole way, often being on small 2 lane highways I had to pass quite a few cars as I hauled ass. Ever since I dropped Matthew off I’ve had my eye on the prize and I have been driving like a bat out of hell to make it to see Jackie. It has been 2 months since I’ve seen her, now she is just one day away! Recently I’ve been worried about what I will do when we see each other. I want to just grab her up and hold her and kiss her and hug her. But I’m worried about that, her parents don’t know about us and they might be there and see us if we do that. After much thought I decided to just go with my feelings and if she sees fit to stop me then she can go ahead.
I drove all morning and got into Little Rock, Arkansas early afternoon. I drove and found a gas station that I could park my car at and cook myself some lunch. There was a little grassy strip next to the lot and I sat there under a tree and cooked some beans. As I sat there I noticed ants crawling on me. THey were tiny ants, smaller than the ones in MI, I didn’t think too much of them, I just flicked them off when I saw them. It wasn’t until a bit later when I started to itch when I realized I had dozens and dozens of little red dots on me.
Also while in Little Rock I realized that while I had printed out Yahoo maps for all the youth rights people I was visiting I forgot to print out maps to Jill’s & Jackie’s places. So I found a public library where I could use the Internet. I printed out maps to Jill’s house and figured I’d get Jackie’s map at Jill’s house. I also checked my e-mail briefly.
After this little break I hit the road again. Uneventful drive until I got to Hope, AR which is the brithplace of President Clinton. So I stopped and drove around the town a bit taping things. After that I kept on going to Texas.
In the city of Texarkana I passed into the Lonestar state. Of all the trip so far I’ve never gotten a thrill like this just from entering a state. I really got a sense of accomplishment and got excited crossing the border.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I have a few ideas. First the simple answer is because now I was in the same state Jackie was I was getting closer to finally seeing her again. Another possability is the legend and aura of Texas. It isn’t just another state, it is Texas, this was once a foregin country, the people here are fiercely proud of their state. Texas has a unique history and culture and it was somehow profound entering into it. My third theory is that Texas is undeniably west. Missouri and Arkansas still felt south and I’ve been south, I never got the feeling that I was striking west. But Texas is much different, Texas (in my mind at least) is truly the west.
One peculiarity was that there were no farms, no corn, no beans, nothing but grazing land for cows. Lots and lots of cows. Meat comes from Texas.
Then I got to Dallas, and it is big. Malls and restauarants started replacing grazing land and I thought, “good I’m getting close” but then I saw a sign saying “Dallas 30.” And for the next 30 miles I drove through an incredible amount of sprawl. People and buildings everywhere. It was just so spread out and massive. Creeping along the ground like a fungus. A weed that was devouring the earth all around it. St. Louis was a great city, but Dallas didn’t seem right at all. It almost felt dirty going in.
It was getting dark when I reached the real Dallas, but I found my way to Jill no problem. I was expecting a big mansion with a lot of land by it, but it was a decent sized house win a rich but not extravagant neighborhood. The house was very oriental on the inside lots of Chinese stuff and knick-knacks.
I finally got to meet Jill’s mother, she looked and acted very much like Jill, they shared a lot of the same mannerisms. Hew’s mom was cool, Larissa’s dad was cool, but Jill’s mom got on my nerves a bit. I didn’t talk to her too much, but there was something about her that I didn’t like.
I also go to meet Jill’s dog, Tiger, and after about 10 minutes I wanted to shoot it. It is a small yippie dog and it didn’t shut up the whole time I was there. If that dog laid eyes on me it would bark like crazy and then run away.
I met Jill’s dad last summer at orientation and I learned he was from Holland, MI originally and moved to Texas at age 12 or so. That was an incredible surprize at orintation and still is. So I gave him a map of Holland that I had. He thought it was great Wed. night we sat around looking at the map talking about Holland. He is a really cool guy, but he talks really fast and is kinda pushy and domineering. Him and the rest of her family don’t really listen much. They talk and cut people off, but they don’t listen much, I hate people like that.
Jill and I went out to Dennys tonight since I was hungry and hadn’t eaten in a while, but we didn’t do much else Wednesday night. Just sat around talking and then talked with Jill’s dad some. Trying to come up with things to do tomorrow. Jill wanted to go to Six Flags, but her father vetoed that idea. We decided to go to a 3D Imax theater and then visit her dad at work and go to lunch with him. Her dad is president of a company.