Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Various Ways to be Exhausted

These pretty little pink flowers are growing in random spots beneath a freeway overpass in Fort Worth, Texas. How do I know this? Because I'm trying to get to Japan, naturally. Travelling from Knoxville, my flight to Charlotte was delayed due to fog, causing me to miss a flight to Fort Worth--and then the substitute flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue. So eventually I did end up in Fort Worth but too late for any flight going to Japan to-day. Fortunately, American Airlines was nice enough to put me up for the night in an Embassy Suite so I can't say I'm too upset. I walked to a nearby Wal Mart for supplies--I was happy to see Texas doesn't have fences and walls everywhere to thwart pedestrians like San Diego does.

It certainly has been an eventful five days.

While staying in Tennessee I had no wi-fi and couldn't go to a Starbucks for it because you can't even stay inside a Starbucks for very long--only to go orders are allowed. I found this out early one morning in Birmingham, Alabama. It's probably a sensible precaution but it makes things difficult for me.

Otherwise, the drive from San Diego to Knoxville was heaven. I do love driving. I spent a lot of time going through Texas, of course. To quote Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, I like the desert "because it's clean," hopefully Coronavirus-free. I swear, if I never hear the word "Coronavirus" again it'll be too soon.

There are so many new Starbucks outfitted with outlets and wi-fi and all the Dennys seem to have wi-fi now. At a Denny's in San Antonio, I overheard a pretty young waitress complaining that she couldn't even buy some supplies for her baby because it was stuff panicked customers had already raided the shop for.

I didn't take many photos on my journey, I didn't have time since my flight was leaving from Knoxville at 7am on Wednesday and I'd left San Diego on Friday. I really wish I could've spent more time in Louisiana. Just the sight of swamps and forests from the freeway was breathtaking.

Here's another photo from Birmingham:

I drove around the historic district at 4:30am. It was too dark for photos. A really eerie experience, all those deserted old buildings with no-one around and weirdly bright street lights. I can't quite describe the feeling it gave me.

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