To the hinterland

We left Louisville on Easter with the intent of making it to Little Rock and spending the night before heading into Dallas on Monday. ah what a strange and scary America lurks in Tennessee and Arkansas. The dominant topographical features are billboards of which there are thousands. First billboard: Adultery is a sin and hell awaits! Second billboard: The Lion's Den -- Adult films, fetishes,fun. Third billboard: It's a child not a choice with a graphic so graphic it's a wonder there aren't stacks of car wrecks surrounding the billboard. Fourth billboard: Missy Velvet' Gentleman's Club-- Meeting all the needs of all our men -- and more! Clearly this is a very conflicted population. As we frantically scoured the FM dial searching for NPR to restore our sanity we instead discovered like ten evangelical radio stations between 87.9 and 90.9. We decided to just go with the flow and with Christian Rock blaring and visions of tortured fetuses dancing before my eyes we pulled into Loretta Lynn's Country Kitchen for lunch. Easter Lunch. Who but homeless migrants such as we would go to Loretta Lynn's Country Kitchen for Easter? Apparently half the population of Tennessee. After a massively fried lunch I was strolling the gift shop while Mical paid the check when I stumbled upon an entire aisle of Aunt Jemima figures (David and Wendy call Betsy and she'll tell you what they are). I was gaping at them when a woman walked up and said "I thought it was illegAl to make these anymore". I said,"Yes, it's appalling". She said:"they keep churning these out and my collection won't be worth a thing!" And they say Mexico is scary. Well we decided we needed to exit this area pronto and drove straight thru to Dallas. It has been great seeing the Langs and we've been running around trying to get set up to use Texas as our legal residence. New driver 's licenses. Title,registration-- the whole annoying nine yards. Skirmishes with the Mexican consulate on vehicle importation, getting Global Entry so we can get thru customs faster-- it has been a virtual bureaucratic field day. That's it for now. Off to Laredo tomorrow and then on to Mexico! We'll keep on posting but it may be a few days.