Road Trip: Driving day 1 and day 2 in the ghetto!

Jeana & I left Texas Tuesday at 1500 and stayed overnight in Louisiana (Ick.  Ick ick ick.  But NOT as scary as Alabama.)
Stayed at a Supa 8 and ate at Outback Steakhouse- BEST meal I’ve ever eaten by the way… I think it had to do with how hungry we were.
Wore heels.  Fun to drag BIG suitcase up flights of stairs in heels. 
I was still sick but it didn’t slow me down any!  YAY stubbornness!

Wednesday, we awoke, I crammed in some complimentary breakfast and hit the road at 0900 like Amelia Bedelia. 
(I’m kidding- no Amelia Bedelia.)

Stopped for gas in some random place in LA and got coffee (HAIL banana cappacino!). 
I was hit on by a 60-year-old redneck and I almost died from horror right then and there. 
Jeana refused to stop again in LA for our sanity.

Mississippi was nifty.  We stopped in the welcome center for no particular reason except to get up and keep my legs from withering away. 
There’s a lot of trees on I-20… lots and lots of trees. 
We jammed out to everything from ICP to Elvis Presley, much to the amusement of many a passerby.
And let me tell you, if you and a friend have never driven down a highway singing ‘Willy Bubba’ at the top of your lungs in attempt to be heard over the music…
Man.  You are seriously missing out. 

Alabama.  Neither of us particularily wanted to stop AT ALL in Alabama.  But, as fate will have it, we needed to pee. 
I said, "We can stop in Birmingham.  That’s a big city."
Jeana says, "FUCK no.  They kill people in Birmingham."
So she pulls off through the middle of nowhere to a gas station where everyone is takin’ a shit and the hand dryers blow 40 mph.  It took me at least five minutes to control my psychotic laughter. 

It was hard to believe we were actually out of Texas, let alone in ALABAMA with all the rednecks…

Georgia!!!  More like my kind of place.  I liked it, for the most part.  But we’d been driving for almost 12 hours and were halfway delirious when we laid eyes on our hotel. 
There was a brief silence and then simultaneously, I started laughing psychotically and Jeana said slowly, "Oh my God." 

There are people ALL around this dilapidated building.  There are clumps in the streets, people lined up on the sidewalk…
Yep, there we were, two white girls in the middle of downtown Georgia, exactly a block in the WRONG direction.
We pull up to the entrance of the hotel and Jeana says, "[INMATE].  That man was smoking CRACK."
We pull into the hotel parking lot and a man standing around gives us an evil ass look….

I get us checked in OK- the lady behind the counter was really sweet.  $100 for 3 nights.  Not bad shit, eh?  : D
We get in our room and the place isn’t too bad.  The floor is filthy but the beds were clean… there was no clock but there was a fridge and microwave SO…

We left for a brief respite.  I had to.  We needed to regain our wits/sanity. 
It’s NOT like I’ve never been in the bad side of town.
It’s NOT like I stick out like a sore thumb (dressing like I have $$- HA, cuz I don’t!)
It’s NOT like I’ve never been in my share of trouble.
It’s NOT that I’ve never been a minority.
But, you have to remember, we’d been driving for TOO long and this was a LOT to stomach at once.

We’re walking to her truck when Jeana says suddenly, "You need to take your bandanna out of your right pocket."
Yes, I automatically get pissed as all hell and start bitching that it’s my ICP bandanna and few people would even recognize what it stands for and that’s who I am- if anyone has a problem with me, FUCK them.
But then I realized that I was in possibly hostile, unfamiliar territory- with my best friend. 
I took my bandanna out and carefully folded it.  SAD, SAD day but If anything were to happen to Jeana… shit. 
I’ll take dishonor any day over being the reason she got shot.

Jeana almost ran over some poor dude as we were leaving- that’s how many people were in the streets.
We drove around, got our directional bearings and went back to the hotel to go for a walk.  We needed to map out how far the Theatre was (for our early morning adventure).  

We start walking towards the main downtown street.  
For some reason, these motherfuckers on the streets were great.  I developed a habit of saying, "Hey!  How are you?  Excuse me" because they were so damn friendly!

(Meanwhile, Jeana’s freaking out- as she stated, she was totally out of her element.)

Went back to the hotel, ate some food and went to bed at midnight. 

Stay tuned for Days 3 & 4!  : ) 

†   INMATE   †

Wearing::  Bright blue/white tie dye bell bottom cotton pants and a dark gray sweatshirt with 2 horizontal white stripes.
Feeling::  Tiiiiiired.  HUNGRY!  I’ve been eating so weird lately I’ve gained a lot of my weight back.  BUT.  I know not to freak out… my life and body is a work in progress and I know now that it always will be.  It’ll never be perfect and that’s OK.  : )
Last ate::  Easter lunch/dinner thing.  Yams, broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, corned beef, bread, strawberry shortcake.  Mmmm.
Fingernails::  ‘Black Ice’