Oxford, Alabama

Spent half the day driving through Alabama, with a stop for gas and snacks just outside of Montgomery. Incredibly hot here, too. Highways are lined with thick trees, many of which are overgrown and/or covered with vines. Gas station patrons made for top notch people watching – and great listening. The deep southern accent is fascination of mine, as is the ethnography and culture of the South.

We also made a pretty quick stop for coffee in Oxford, a town close to the Georgia border,** where we encountered Chad and Chrystal. He an enormous chap with a tee emblazoned with a picture of a rifle across the back, under which it read “Now is the Time.” She was slightly less memorable, but still quite a sight. They parked next to us and ordered enormous frozen coffees and mid-afternoon donuts. Though we didn’t talk to them, and knew their names only after reading their plastic coffee cups, we spent a lot of time talking about them. Quite a pair.

As an aside, Day 70 is a somber milestone. We are not at all ready to call it quits and are totally bummed out about marking the first day of our last week. Though we have tons to look forward to, and are on the precipice of a really exciting year, thinking about getting back to reality is a little depressing. If we could somehow find the time/money and figure out a way to avoid all the packing/unpacking, I think we could travel around like this forever.

** This stop was just after the “Natural Bridge” mishap, a story not really worth telling except to say that we didn’t stop to see it and on some level have come to regret it.