What a great day this was! I have to tell you, when you move from one city to another in the US, doing it by rental car is the best. You don’t have to sweat how lumbering, clumsy and bulky a moving truck or van is. You don’t need to sweat that it’s your car, of course, I didn’t own a car which is why I had to go this route. Going by car at your own lazy pace is one of the few times I’m pro-car.
I loved this change in my life, even more than when I returned in 1998 and certainly unlike 1997 when I left. It was my first vacation in a couple years and unlike the last one, I wasn’t going to be fired when I returned, quite the opposite. I remember having $400 worth of traveller’s cheques on me. I don’t think anyone uses them anymore. If I’m wrong, tell me! You just don’t see ads for them on YouTube. Now that I think about, after the big series of ads with Karl Malden, I guess they fizzled out. The commercials were weird too. The victim who got burned had another brand. What other brand?
The other part of the story I love was my grandparents finally realizing, “Oh crap! Stevie is really leaving us!” Yeah, I’m 25 then and I’m still called Stevie as if I’m four. They thought I was just bluffing after I got my magic phone call a couple weeks earlier and I had another excuse to take a long weekend from the job I already quit in Peoria. Grandma panicked to call my mother about this. Mom understood yet there remained a patronizing tone in her voice, “You can always come here (Raleigh-Durham) if it doesn’t work out.” As if I’m still a teenager needing his parents to fix his mistakes. My response was, “I’ll live in a dumpster in Austin before I ever live there.” Yes, I would be eating those words in three years due to Grandpa’s demise.
However, I love this kickoff! I was packed up with what matter on the road and the stuff I didn’t trust UPS to deliver intact, namely my stereo and music collection. I had my tape copies of WMAG (they wouldn’t become KMAG) to fill in the long stretches between cities which remained great time markers of progress. It was a smart move too. I swear, every so called “Alternative” station played Sheryl Crow’s “Leaving Las Vegas,” Beck’s “Loser,” and James’ “Laid,” ad nauseum.
I was on the road by 10 AM, in Springfield by noon, St. Louis around 5 pm (because I got lost finding the Arch) and Memphis by 9 pm. I recently dreamt about that house I loved so much in Springfield. Its interior had been remodeled and not in a good way. The big lobby with the staircase going up was now enclosed with the dead clock near the top, removed, taking away a big piece of its personality. I just hope its current owner is taking good care and loving that house as much as I did when I lived there.