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The Great American Road Trip

a travel blog by JRadhirsch


Fuck Yeah!
I'm embarking on the Great American Road Trip. I have 3 weeks to get to Washington DC to pick up Justine from the Airport and we have 2 weeks to get back to California. I'm keeping my schedule and itinerary loose, but check back here to see where I've been and where I think I may be going.
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Day 18: Local in a Strange Land

New York, United States

My mini vacation from my roadtrip continued today and will continue into tomorrow. Or did it? A visit from one of my mother's best friends, who has been an aunt to me form many years was accompanied by a trip to Brooklyn's Chinatown for Dim Sum.
We then meandered down the street passed food vendors with their live fish flopping about in Styrofoam coolers, the dusty air of ginseng sellers, the eggy aroma of pastry shops and many a pirated DVD amidst the hustle of eager shoppers looking for the right ingredient for that night's dinner at the right price.


Did you drink your Happy today?



permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 18, 2008 from New York, United States
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Day 19: Old friends, New lives

Montclair, United States

It's been a few days without internet access so the details of the preceding few days may be a bit fuzzy, or I may choose to make things up to fill in for the dark spots. You'll never know which I made up and which was real, so who cares?

I said good bye to the world's greatest parents and pushed off for New Jersey where I visited with two friends from High School who meant a lot to me, but that I had pretty much lost contact with and both of whom were recent mothers and living in New Jersey.

Jennifer Neiderhoffer (nee Levy) was my best friend in High School. She along with Jenn Baum and I would hang out in her basement watching MTV, or go to the Unicorn Diner for Gravy fries. The friendship the three of us had was the closest I ever got to the average American High School experience. I knew Jenn for many years prior to our closer friendship and I developed somewhat of a crush on her that developed into much much more than that. Years later, something happened after Heather and I broke up that caused me to lose contact with her. I'm still not entirely sure what that was, but it had something to do with rewriting my life and she was a casualty of that. Now that my life is back on track, I endeavor to reconnect with her on a more consistent basis. This is a picture of her beautiful baby girl Samantha and I hanging out on the couch just like her mom and I used to do.

Katie Barrett (nee Travis) was my High School girlfriend. We dated for a very long time and never officially broke up. Katie was the centerpiece of my social life at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, an amazing opera singer and so full of life and passion. We split up after graduating, had a summer fling one summer thereafter and then I got very serious with Heather and she went to Italy. She's now a mom with another one on the way. This is Casey her infectiously happy boy in the arms of his dad Damien.

We went to dinner in Montclair, NJ at this really cute former Soda fountain where in addition to my shrimp on grits I had a quintessential New York soda fountain drink that you just can't get outside of the influence of Brooklyn Jews: A chocolate egg cream.
I ended up hitting the Road really late and got to DC around 12:30am after driving through as many states as I did hours and paying more than 20 bucks in tolls.

permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 19, 2008 from Montclair, United States
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Days 20: Reunited and it feels so good

Washington, United States

On the long drive the night before I had time to reflect on what I got out of driving 3 weeks cross country on my own. Needless to say, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do so and am so grateful to Justine for understanding why I wanted to do this and not allowing it to become a wedge between us. It was hard for her and I underestimated by how much. All that is passed now as we are finally together again and will have a chance to create new adventures as a team going forward.

In Washington DC we stayed with our friend Booster whom we camp with at Burning Man. Booster has had some serious adversity thrown his way but he seems to have made gold from it and is always there with an encouraging and optimistic view on life. Booster ends every email with the following: "It's gonna be great!" and it always is, even with it isn't. I learned a lot more about my fellow Lost Penguin on this trip and I'm so glad that he was there in DC for us to share that leg of our trip with.

We met Justine at 5:30 in the morning, kissed for an eternity at the luggage claim at Dulles airport and hit the town straight away taking full advantage of the sunrise.

Pretty much everything in Justine's To-Do list centered around The Mall area of Washington and we walked from The Lincoln Memorial
through the World War II memorial,
around the Washington Monument, back down to the Vietnam Memorial
and then over to the Korean War memorial
before getting breakfast in Virginia near Booster's house in Mclean.

We napped for a few hours, then drove to Arlington Cemetery, walking around and playing junior detective trying to figure out the significance of the various insignia, symbols, stones used and placement of the over 220,000 national heroes buried there. The pomp and circumstance of the Tomb of the Unknown was particularly stunning. Watching the sentinel march his perfectly timed dance in tribute to his fallen man at arms was stunning and highly effective. The ritual surrounding honoring those who's identities will never be known illustrated the loyalty the military has for those who offer to give their life in the name of our country. I was really moved by this piece of propaganda and I doubt it will leave me for a long time to come.

Once the sun set we back into the city to catch the nighttime views of the same places we visited in the morning, this time also hanging out at the Jefferson Memorial.

Booster invited us back to his restaurant and we had a really nice meal there on the house.



permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 20, 2008 from Washington, United States
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Day 21: Reflections

Washington, United States

Booster, Justine and I started our day early attempting to get in to the US Capitol building. Turns out, they aren't open on Sundays so we instead walked over to the US Botanical Garden which according to green thumbed Justine is the best in the world. I believe her. It was beautiful, surprising, very educational, and they were doing a lot to promote green initiatives. I'll let her blog go into more detail about it as she knows way more than I do on this particular subject. I'm catching up as our geeky interests ozmoze into each other's, but for now she's the master and I am but a student.

We then walked over to the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum which is famous for having many examples or replicas of actual space ships, satellites, airplanes of historical importance and your choice of freeze dried ice cream.

I had been there when I was fifteen and felt that while some of the vehicles were new (like Space Ship One- very cool) the displays hadn't changed in 20 years. One of the most amazing things about Washington DC is that all of the museums are free. We paid for next to nothing to get into world class exhibits. I fear that the Air and Space museum may be the down side to that policy. A refresher on some of the science displays is in order and I hope they get the funding to do it. There were several of the Smithsonians that were closed for renovation so I'm hoping this one is on the list.

After the celebration of mankind's accomplishments, we went to the flip side: the Holocaust Museum. I have mixed emotions about the subject and its museum treatment. Growing up a secular Jew who attended Hebrew School in my youth, the Holocaust was beaten into my head in place of learning about faith, spirituality, or the bible. Instead of learning about the High Holy days, I learned about all of the ways that my people have been victimized, marginalized, tortured, murdered, and the attempts to drive us from existence. The subject of the genocide attempted by the Nazi regime has left me numb. I visited a concentration camp in Germany a decade ago, cried for a while and then moved on. This isn't the reality of the modern Jew. I don't experience this level of bigotry in my life and while I feel guilty for feeling this way about the subject and trauma inflicted on millions of my people, I'm just tired of it. My brain can't process this stuff anymore. I choose to see the goodness in people and I'm much happier for it.

That said, the museum itself is very well done and I'm glad it's there. The history especially at the beginning of Adolf's rise to power and the day to day events that transpired thereafter are very well illustrated. It is a very fitting tribute to those who lost their lives, homes and villages and really helps us to examine ourselves in it's context. Perhaps the most moving part was the exhibit on modern day genocides, especially what's going on in Darfur right now and I hope that someone in power experiences it the way they intend and does something to stop it. We really haven't seemed to have learned the lessons of the 1940s.

Reflecting on the museum, we drove around town with no particular direction in mind and then found some food after our first choice for soul food was closed.

Ben's Chili Bowl is a DC institution and we got there just as they were locking up. They had a few hot dogs on the grill remaining and we had them prepared house style with mustard, onions, and lots of chili. They were a little dried out as they had been sitting on the grill for a bit before we got there, but the chili was great. The atmosphere was even better and we ate them reclining on the trusty Carolla out front. tired, spent, and full we retired to Booster's house for a good night's sleep.

permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 21, 2008 from Washington, United States
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Day 22 part 1: Monticello

Lynchburg, United States

We got up early yet again and made our way to the US Capitol builing hoping for a tour. We got there at 9:30am and were handed 2 tickets for the 11:30 tour. We really were hoping to be out of DC by noon as we had a 6 hour drive to Charoltte, North Carolina to see yet another Burning Man campmate, Dirty and wanted to stop in Monticello for some good old fashioned Thomas Jefferson action before that. The tour seemed like it was worth the delay, but alas we were wrong. I assumed that a tour of the Capital building would include access to the galleries of the House and Senate. I was in Washington (in the middle of some exciting Senatorial history mind you) and wanted to see some actual government in action. Buyouts! Morgage Crisis! Banking Meltdown! you know: what we pay these people to do for us. Well, it turns out that the "tour" of the Capitol includes three rooms: The rotunda (actually pretty cool), a statue gallery, and the crypt where the gift shop and rudimentary historical displays were set up. At the end of the tour we were told that if we wanted to get into the galleries, we needed to exit the building, go across the street to one of the House office buildings, find our House Representative's office and request a gallery pass from them! Say what? I knew Washington was full of red tape, but come on. really? It was already too late in the day for us and we decided against doing all of that and leaving it for the next time we were back in DC. I did however pass by Nancy Pelosi's office.

We sped our way towards North Carolina and stopped in Charlestown, VA, home of Thomas Jefferson.

That was great. Lots of good history, pretty grounds and we got to play a game I invented called "Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented _______" where we filled in the most ridiculous items in the blank. For example: Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented trees? He also invented Ballroom dancing, the internet, fusion, slaves, tea-bagging, and the color white? TJ was the man, btw. my third favorite president.

We left Charlestown latter than expected and stopped in Lynchburg, VA for dinner and eventual bed. The knowledge box helped us to decide on a tapas place called Dish which lived up to the reviews. It was while eating dinner that we decided to stay the night and the oh so helpful waitstaff helped us find a place to stay. We ended up finding a cheaper motel outside of town, but it was so nice of them to help us.

Things about Lynchburg you didn't know, but Wikipedia does: Dr. Fleet invented the Fleet Enema and chap stick (hmmm, what do these two things have in common?) here and the Fleet corporation still has it's headquarters there; During the Civil War, prostitutes from Lynchburg were sent out to service the Union soldiers a few miles away only to provide them with false propaganda about the *ahem* size of the Confederate army stationed there, thus defending the town from invasion from the North; Jerry Falwell's church and the university he founded, Liberty U is located there; AND the Obama campaign has a very well organized office there.

Are you registered to vote? It's too important not to be.

We got very lost looking for the motel, but eventually found it, settled in and spent a few hours catching up on blogging and emails.

permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 22, 2008 from Lynchburg, United States
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Day 23: Dirty!

Charlotte, United States

Turns out there is a gas shortage right where we are heading! Uh Oh! Still not sure if it will change our plans, but we may wind up having to spend a few extra days where we aren't planning on staying. I think it's actually exciting, but I REALLY want to be in Albuquerque on Oct 4th as my mother and sister are flying there to experience the International Hot Air Balloon festival with Justine's parent and us. It would really suck to not be there when my mom and her folks meet. Okay, back to the Actual road trip, not the road trip that's yet to be.

We drove through VA and into NC this morning, hitting Charlotte around lunch time and meeting up with John "Dirty Martini" McCray, so named for the daily ritual of Dirty Martinis he serves up at that thing in the desert. I love Dirty. I have since the first day I met him 3 years ago and I continue to do so to this day. It wasn't until today that I learned the irony or his nickname. He's a neat freak. Like OCD neat. He says that Burning Man is his time to relax from all that, but watching the man in action today showed me exactly why he's Dirty in the desert, but no where else. We met up at the first desegregated restaurant in the South- The Coffee Cup and had some serious soul food. Fried Chicken, Collard Greens, Yams, Fried Okra and Mac and Cheese- Fucking Yum.

Dirty went back to work and we drove first to an actual NASCAR track, The Lowe's Speedway. That's a lot of asphalt and bleachers. We could hear them racing around inside, but couldn't get up close enough to see them do their thing. We then drove back into town and parked downtown under these massive pissing contests of skyscrapers built for competing banks Wachovia and Bank of America, both of whom are headquartered here. Under one of them is the amazing Mint art and design museum. Who knew that Charlotte was so hip to design?

We walked around town, then drove around some fancy neighborhoods, fantasized about living there, and then drove to Dirty's house that he shares with his lover of 19 years, Stuart. Dirty broke out the martini glasses and the olives and poured us some for old times sake.

. Stuart came home shortly there after with pizza in hand. After dinner, Dirty showed us his mega deluxe 40' RV with telescoping living and bed rooms, washer/dryer, full shower, and Stuart's collections of Mermen

There talking about moving to the Bay Area and I hope they do. Great people with great taste.



permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 23, 2008 from Charlotte, United States
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Day 24: Southern Cooking

Atlanta, United States

We said goodbye to Stuart this morning and also to Dirty, though via telephone. Today is Dirty's birthday (Happy Birthday John!) and he and Stuart are taking a road trip of their own down south to do some RVing. They like to stay in Gay Campgrounds, which I had no idea even existed. I always thought of trailer parks as being very closed minded places, but apparently our homosexual brethren are reclaiming that mantle, buying up campgrounds and turning them into havens for rainbow covered nomads. I love my country.

We pulled out of their neighborhood and started the hunt for gasoline. It wasn't very hard, but for every 4 gas stations we passed, only one of them had any. The long lines told the full story and I was reminded of what doomed Jimmy Carter back in the 70s. Justine and I are headed into uncharted waters here. Do we continue on our trip knowing that we might run out of gas and miss planned destinations like Memphis to play it safe, or do we fill up on bravery and risk being stuck someplace, missing a whole lot more than just Tennessee. For now, we're taking the risk. Wish us luck.

Our destination today was Birmingham, Alabama and more specifically, the home of Lois Whitten, Neil's (Justine's father) oldest friend. We mostly took the freeways through the South as Birmingham was 6 hours away, but we managed to get in a few food related stops.

We crossed the border into South Carolina and pulled into the visitor's center looking for places selling the official snack of South Carolina: Boiled Peanuts.

I had had these edamame like beans once before when I was a junior in college and went with a Boston based theater company down to the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina for a week. I still remember them to this day and was on a mission to get them again and to share them with Justine. Find them we did, though only after a few tries. Also for sale were many varieties of orchard fruit and the products that one derives from them.
They also sold fireworks like these "Four Fathers"

We stopped in Atlanta for lunch at world famous Fat Matt's BBQ and then drove through Alabama to Lois' house getting there right before dinner time. I love eating my way through the South. I wonder If we'll get to do something else though while we're here.



permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 24, 2008 from Atlanta, United States
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Day 25: Revolution and Reconciliation

Birmingham, United States

Today was our first full day in Birmingham. We arrived last night and was greeted by Lois Whitten, Justine's father's oldest friend. Justine and Lois had never met before, but had heard all about each other through stories from Neil. Lois has lived in Birmingham her entire life and is a self professed Southern Belle (I knew she was half kidding when she told us that she was forced to learn how to pump her own gas a few years before) Lois has lived in the same house for the last 40 years and may be moving into a flat should the housing market turn favorable. Her husband Bob passed away some time ago and she keeps his ashes in an urn next to an extremely life like bust he commissioned of himself in his late thirties. She likes to pat his head when speaking of him as if he's still here, just frozen and bronze. It's very endearing. Lois had a spread all laid out for us when we arrived in typical southern hospitality fashion. She's a very generous and kind hearted person who has a lot of great stories to tell and a real passion for justice and equality. She saw to it that we had a great time in Birmingham and whatever we wanted to do was just fine by her. She took us out for dinner last night and then drove us around town today.

The symbol of Birmingham is a statue of the Roman God Vulcan who was the god of blacksmithing and sits atop Red Mountain on the north side of the city. A few facts about Vulcan: It is the largest cast iron statue in the world; Was build for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904; Can be seen for miles; And has been the source of controversy as he is wearing a loincloth that does not cover his ass. The gift shop sells a deluxe bobble head version of him with an additional spring in his butt to make his badonk-a-donk jiggle. Lois thought her grandson would get a kick out of it as he is always asking her to "shake her booty" so she bought one.

Today's southern prepared meat was lunch at Alabama's famous Dreamland BBQ.

The sauce was tangy and thick, but I found the ribs to be dry without a lot of meat on them. By far my favorite dish there was their Brunswick Stew, a southern dish consisting of a pork stew with diced tomatoes and corn. We had some in Atlanta the other day and I look forward to trying other versions across the south. As a result I am planning on altering one of my favorite recipes to include some secrets I gleaned from Brunswick Stew.

Our stomachs full, we drove around Downtown and Lois related stories to us of when that particular part of town had seen better days. You could still see the outlines of Woolworth's and other now defunct department stories on the marquees of closed up shops. Other areas of Birmingham have prospered, but the downtown could use an infusion of civic pride and money.

We then went to the Civil Rights Museum and its adjoining park with the slogan

There were a few homeless people serving as unofficial tour guides of the park and relating the powerful history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham which was then expounded upon ten fold inside the museum. Wow, what a difference it makes to view someone else's cultural suffering than my own. I was numbed by the Holocaust museum in DC, but vibrated by the Museum here. Perhaps its because this form of racism still continues to this day and many African Americans are still left without prosperity and the American Dream where as we Jews through various reasons have found our way to equality and thrived. What was really fascinating to me was the methodical approach Dr. King and the black congress took to desegregating the south. They worked methodically breaking down individual Jim Crow laws until they amassed enough victories to inspire change in those who thought it fruitless. I could feel the infectious swelling of hope in the face of staggering violence and wanted to join the freedom riders myself.

We retired to Lois' house and entertained her neighbors who had just returned from a trip to Kansas City. They are world travelers themselves and as I have done with adventures through out this trip we sat and traded road stories. They had a few great ones and before we knew it hours had passed by.

We leave tomorrow morning headed to Tennessee, first to Nashville for a few days and then to Memphis. We have couch surfers lined up in both cities including a guy with a house boat in Nashville. I can't wait.

By the by, Justine is also keeping a blog of her trip, though she warns that she isn't keeping it as up to date as mine. The link to that is http://www.blogabond.com/toadfu



permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 25, 2008 from Birmingham, United States
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Day 26: Lost Luggage

Scottsboro, United States

Today was going to be a short(er) drive of 3 hours so we opted to take the more scenic route and avoid the interstate all together. We drove through beautiful redneck country into northeastern Alabama to a small town called Scottsboro and stopped for the most amazing Fried Chicken at a local place called Liberty Restaurant.
The sweet potatoes, turnip greens, and string beans must have all been cooked with some form of pork fat and were delicious. It was here that we also had our first piece of Lemon Ice Box Pie- a less sweet Lemon Meringue minus the meringue. The locals at the restaurant gave us a few glances sideways, but the waitress and owner were really nice to us, having noticed our California license plate and wanting to insure we had a decent time in their little town. Decent it was. Better than decent. Only a on a cross country trip would I ever have the excuse to drive through rural Alabama. This is one of the many joys of the trip so far- seeing bits of the country I would never see otherwise. I've learned some of the local customs, tasted local cuisine, and slowly adopted the dialects and accents of the hills and valleys around me. I have loved stopping every two hundred miles or so and hearing the accents morph from town to town. The scenery has been pretty much the same for the last few days, but the sounds change.

The "real" reason we were in Scottsboro was to go shopping at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Every piece of lost luggage from the nation's airlines ends up here to be sold off for a song. Imagine a department store full of used items and an unusual amount of luggage and that's what it's like. They had a little bit of everything and sometimes a lot of everything. Electronics, clothes, sporting equipment, jewelry, toys, etc.They advertise 7,000 new items a day and recommend stopping in multiple times to see what's new. We had a couple of hours and that was enough for me, though if I lived here (I won't be) I'd be there every day. I found an awesome bejeweled white Fez ($6) and a sweet pair of designer jeans ($20.) Justine got some jeans herself, a tie, a hat and a big white belt. I seriously toyed with getting a used Raiders Bowling Ball, but thought the better of it given that I probably won't use it and that it would only add weight to the car for the remainder of the trip. They also had a myriad of iPods for dirt cheap, but as we already own 3 between the two of us, didn't need to buy another one. There was a beautiful sadness to the place mixed with shoppers joy in finding great deals on someone else's lost luggage. They also had a "museum" of lost items they found including ancient Egyptian artifacts that they auctioned off at Christie's and puppet/props from the Henson/ILM movie Labyrinth.
How can you lose Hoggle? I guess losing things is common in a labyrinth so it was only fitting.

After Scottsboro, we drove across the Tennessee border and stopped in Lynchburg, TN at the Jack Daniels distillery.

Sadly, they were closing so we missed out on a tour, but the grounds were beautiful. With a bit of Irony we learned that Lynchburg is a dry town in a dry county in Tennessee dating back to pre-prohibition, but they drafted an exemption for Jack Daniels.

America, Fuck Yeah!

permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 26, 2008 from Scottsboro, United States
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Day 27: Wrecked by breakfast followed by a religious experience

Nashville, United States

We arrived in Nashville last night and had quite the welcome to Nashville experience. Martin, our couch surfing host has a house boat which we had solo use of for the time we spent in Nashville. Our own house boat!
Here's my iphone working its gps magic to show you where on Percy Priest Lake we were
and where specifically on the dock we were
Sweet. We arrived about an hour before we were supposed to meet up with him and were adopted by other residents of the docks. We talked a little bit of politics as the debate was about to start (they are all mostly Republicans,) but then switched the topic to Football. The Titans are a much loved team in Nashville and they are doing really well this year after having the promise of a good team for years and never fulfilling on it. After meeting Martin an hour later, we were introduced to the residents of Dock D around his boat who we would end up partying through the night with. The Marina has a local restaurant and outdoor performance space on a dock and one of the hottest local bands, the Red Neck Yacht Club played for hours.
They are a mixture of Bluegrass and honky tonk and rocked that dock something fierce. Dare I call it a ho-down? oh, I dare. We danced, clapped, and sang through the night, ignoring one apparently homophobic song with the lyrics: "I never gonna go to Brokeback mountain, that shit ain't right" We danced anyway, letting the politics brush pass us enjoying that they were enjoying and experiencing the other half as it were. It's one of the thing I wanted to experience on this road trip and I got to in the most fun way possible. I feel guilty writing about it, but it was an authentic event with authentic people who welcomed us in even knowing our politics.

We woke up the next morning to this view out the starboard window:

We snuggled for a long time in OUR VERY OWN HOUSE BOAT (sorry about that, it still excites me. I mean come on, our very own house boat? Couchsurfing is the best way to travel period. Handsdown. Pass Go, collect 2 hundred dollars. a houseboat.) and then went for breakfast at the famous Pancake Pantry located next to the Vandibilt campus. the ubiquitous line stretch for an hour or so and when we were seated couldn't stop ordering things.

Let me tell you about something called Country Ham. It's Bacon, but better. I don't know the anatomy of where it comes from, but it's a thick slice of meaty bacon with a healthy strip of fat down one side and salty good. Justine had 5 of the fluffiest blueberry pancakes (topped with homemade blueberry compote) and I had sweet potato pancakes with warm cinnamon syrup. We also ordered hash browns and grits to which prompted the table next to us to ask where we were from as I poured syrup on my grits. I "offended" his southern upbringing by using something other than butter and salt on them. I didn't care (he didn't really either) and ate them making yummy sounds. An hour later we were Wrecked by Breakfast (tm, Justine Smith, 2008) unable to move or motivate to do anything besides lay down in the park. Luckily for us, the second park we landed in had one of the symbols of Nashville: a full sized replica of the Parthenon.

once we had digested most of our breakfast, we decided to find the Grand Ole Opry. Wow. I had no idea. The owner closed Opryland theme park a decade ago to open the Opry Mills shopping Mall in its place and we were stunned by commerce. Inside the Mall is a Gibson guitar store and factory. Dad, this picture was taken for you of one of the work benches in the fiddle plant:

The opry was in performance that night, but we didn't have tickets. Next time I'm getting tickets. We instead opted for the gift shop and avoided spending hundreds of dollars on gaudy western wear and cowboy hats. Following that we found the Opry Museum and were awed by its history, prominence, and contributions to American culture (even if it wasn't my own culture) The get ups these guys sported rivaled Elvis and I can't believe that they weren't immediately kicked out for dressing so flamboyantly.

Later that night we got lost and then found the crunkest fish in town,East Side Fish.

We got there as they were closing and were only able to taste their fish sandwiched which were hand battered in cornmeal batter and deep friedn to a golden yum. While eating in our car we were approached by a black gentlemen evangelizing. I told him that we were Jewish which stopped him in his tracks and he then retreated only to return with a woman five minutes later with a question to ask: What did that mean, to be Jewish? The four of us then spent about half an hour talking about the finer points of Judaism and Christianity and the difference between the religions. They were fascinated and I in them. It was really beautiful and moving. Here we were at 10pm in a parking lot in the "wrong side" of town discussing spirituality. Us from California, them from Tennessee peering into each other's ideas of faith. They called our meeting heaven sent, I called it serendipity. It amounted to the same thing and they were able to appreciate where I came from and I them.

ah road trips. I love them so much

permalink written by  JRadhirsch on September 27, 2008 from Nashville, United States
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