Road Trip List

Athens, Alabama. photo: Susan Harlan

Objects on highway memorials
Silk flowers
Teddy bears
Stuffed red hearts
Small American flags
Ribbons (many colors)

Ways of measuring distance
Mile markers
Number of times I have listened to Jagged Little Pill
Highway exit numbers
Desire/need to pee
Car clock (set to the wrong time)
Watch (set to the right time)

Places I have been that are named after other places
Corinth, Tennessee (drove past)
Athens, Alabama (stayed the night at the Super 8)
Paris, Texas (stayed the night at the Baymont Inn and Suites)
Lebanon (forget which state)

Signs in Athens, Alabama
Golden Corral
Shoney’s
Shell
Ruby Tuesday
Bojangles’ Famous Chicken and Biscuits
Cracker Barrel
Applebee’s
Days Inn
Super 8
Holiday Inn Express & Suites
Sleep Inn
La Quinta
Fairfield Inn & Suites
Publix Supermarket

Things at the castle on a cliff in Tennessee
Swallows, casting shadows
Silver flags on its turrets

Things in the fields in Alabama
Red soil
Big rolling silver sprinklers
Other big sprinklers that look like spiders

Roadkill
Dog, breed unknown (near Rutherford, Tennessee)
Four armadillos (Texas)
Something unidentifiable
Opossum (can’t remember where)

Things Near Exit 348 to Guntown, Mississippi
Electrical Supply stores
Sheds
Small tract housing communities
RVs
Fields of yellow flowers
Water tower

Rigs
Purity Dairy Products
Tyson Chicken

Flora and fauna
Purple flowering bushes in Arkansas
White flowering tress in Alabama and Tennessee
No bluebells in Texas yet

Some things that I acquired
Santa Muerte candles, including one of Texas saint Don Pedrito and several for the LOTTO
Pink flamingo tin lawn ornament
Old railroad sign
Railroad spikes (collected along the tracks)
Coins crushed on railroad tracks (sixteen)
Several rocks
Jar of buttons, various colors and sizes
Jar of old matchbooks, including Big Boy, First National Bank of Duncanville, and L.R. Ward Steel Products Co.
Chalkware Virgin Mary, about two feet tall
Rusted key from a Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge (3500 Rangeline Rd., Joplin, Missouri)
Souvenir pennies (maybe four?)
Souvenir Eiffel Tower with cowboy hat from Paris, Texas
Eifel Tower fridge magnet from Paris, Texas
‘Fool’s Gold’ fake gold necklace in a plastic pod from a grocery store vending machine
Afghan, white with various colors
Snow globe containing deer (Hot Springs, Arkansas)
Snow globe containing bears (Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee)