Chapter 2... Tennessee

So as the story goes on...
Refreshed and collected from 5 days at the red river gorge, i find myself being dropped off in knoxville. John and I said our "goodbye"s and i headed to the onramp to attempt a hitch over to nashville. I figured a 2 hour drive would be an easy hitch hike, especially in the heart of Tennessee. I couldn't have been more mistaken...
First of all, Tennessee in the summer time is hot... blazing hot. Standing on the gravel and pavement of an onramp does not help the heat. Luckily i was picked up about an hour later. There were two mexicans in a beat up honda waiting for me to hop in. There wasn't much communication between the two of us due to the difference in language, but i sat in back listing to 2-pac and Biggie, and was just happy to get off the onramp. As quickly as I got comfortable was as quickly as I was dropped off. In the worst place possible I might add.
At first the place looked quite nice... It was a very busy truck stop, so I was immediately banking on a trucker picking me up. I went straight to the onramp considering the 2 chico's only drove me 10 miles. It was the most frustrating onramp of the trip. On the back of the sign that was posted in front of me read travelers names dating back to 2001. The boldest font on the sign read, "Hitchhiking sucks!" It was not a good sign. As the hours and continuous people passed, I began to understand making it to nashville wasn't going to happen. I made phone calls to my family in nashville telling them to expect me the following day, and I watched as the sun went down.
I then walked over to a truck stop, grabbed something to drink and sat out front in hopes of somebody offering me a ride west. The only person who confronted me was a cop questioning me on where i was going, and what i was planning on doing with the illegal knife strapped to me. I told him the truth and he kicked me off the gas station property. I moved on to the next one. It was here that there were endless signs saying "no hitchhikers". I ate some chips, blasted immortal technique in my headphones, smoked a bunch of cigs, then found a nice hidden patch of grass to fall asleep on.

The morning wasn't much better. I sat at that onramp from sunrise til about noon, to eventually get picked up by a couple in their mid 70's. They saved the day. They only took me 12 miles or so, but got me off that shitty sun burned onramp. From here on out it was a breeze. They dropped me off after the 3 of us ran some errands to the post office and bank. I was immediately picked up by another mexican who drove me a good 25 miles outside of knoxville. Now in high spirits of actually making it to Nashville, i blasted Xavier Rudd in my headphones and threw out my thumb in a construction zone all the while dancing and being watch by all the workers. I was quickly picked up by an older man in a beat up conversion van. There wasnt much conversation in this ride, but he was driving all the way out to Arizona, which meant I got a straight ride to Nashville. We listened to a book on tape, and just before I arrived to my exit, i watch the miles on his car tick over 500,000 miles. I finished the trip by walking to my uncles.
Over the next few days I spent time with my grandparents. I was very mellow and relaxing, aka boring, but it felt really good. The time spent with them was very important to me and cleared my head a bit about the importance of family and our elders. There was also time spent with my uncle dwight, which I think was the first time in our history that we actually got to sit down and speak to each other as adults and that was really great. The night of the 27th I stayed with my aunt and uncle and awoke at 4:45 to get a ride to the airport. I was scared shitless to fly, as those of you who know me well would expect, but all went well and i arrived in Denver at 8AM.