Mountain girl

Wednesday I got in my car and drove East on I-40.

I'd just worked 31 hours since Monday, and had a hard time staying awake for the first 40 miles or so. I finally pulled over at a combo Wendy's/gas station in Carthage, TN to get something caffeinated and a snack to keep my eyes open...and a bathroom. It was a fairly routine pit-stop, but it was disconcerting to see an armed guard inside the door.

The first time I spent any significant amount of time in Carthage was the day that Gov. Bill Clinton announced Sen. Al Gore, Jr. as his running mate for the first time, in 1992. It was an insanely hot day. People were passing out from the heat, and the the only shade around was the big tree in front of courthouse. The fire department had a fire truck out with a water tank to make sure people were hydrating.

That was the genesis of the future signs and t-shirts professing "Bill & Al's Excellent Adventure." It was also the first time I'd heard the show "Car Talk," and while I love it now, I told my dad he should change the channel because I was sick of hearing those hillbillies talk  about cars. Oy.

This trip, I was across the street from what had been the only gas station in Carthage in 1992. I settled for a small mint hot chocolate and a small bag of corn nuts to get me to Knoxville for the night. It did the trick. So did my fond memories of that trip with Dad. I'm sure I was no peach that trip, having recently returned from a semester of high school in Israel. I did not want to be back in Tennessee, or back under my parents' roof. I was a miserable, but I was interested in politics, and Dad fostered that interest well, as it was, and is, also his own.

The rest of the drive made me smile constantly. I was awake, only spilled some of my hot chocolate on myself, and was totally digging the harsh crunch of the corn nuts. And then I noticed it. I was surrounded by rolling hills. Rolling green hills. I was headed home. Not just to my parents' house, but home to East Tennessee, to the Smoky Mountains. I forgot how much vistas feed my soul. The hills were alive with the green of springtime, that misty green, that subtle, delicate green of my favorite season.

I drove in joy and looked forward to the rest of my trip.