Day 1:  Sikeston, MO

Corey just posted a few minutes ago about tradition and I know she is a little bummed at missing out on spending Christmas day with her mom and Ogrentz family.  Henna and I are too.  But today actually felt like a traditional Christmas day to me.  We had the traveling on Christmas day (which as a kid we did often, it is the best/ cheapest day to travel), the trying to scavenge a meal out of something when all the diners are closed (and even my choice of meal, Dinty Moor stew, reminded me of past childhood meals), and the watching of the local news.  The latter was the funniest part of the day as we watched kids just a few years older than Henna report on the great blizzard of 2012.  That blizzard is why we are here tonight in lovely Sikeston instead of leaving tomorrow morning in the direction of Chattanooga Sikeston is directly south of us and we thought we could outfox Mother Nature.  Not!  The storm actually moved south of its original projected pattern and is now hovering over Memphis.  So we will have some possible rough roads ahead and a lot of miles to make up.  Oh well, such is the making of a new tradition.

Day 2:  Montgomery, AL

Well we finally made it past the Sir Line.  The Sir Line separates the south from the north with everyone south of line a compulsive sir-er and ma’am-er.  You ask someone where the nearest gas station is, and they might reply “Down Jefferson Davis street and across from the gun/ liquor store/ bible store, sir.”  Now, if the person giving the answer is, say, twelve, it seems kind of cute.  But when the responder is an older man walking with a cane, it just seems downright weird.  I of course have no idea how to respond.  Should I sir the person back?  If I did, would that then negate the original sir which would force him to sir me once more?  And am I being rude whenever I fail to use sir when talking to a stranger?  Corey talked to Henna earlier today and made sure she knew to really thank people when they say something nice to her; maybe even throw in a ma’am or sir.

Even with all this sir nonsense, I still love talking to people down here.  Everyone is so very nice and genuine, kind of like Canadians (only with guns).  After awhile we started to treat each pit stop like a social call.  “Hello there sir and by sir I mean wizened old man working the teller.”  I never actually said that, but you get the idea.  The one thing that is really maddening me is all this driving we are doing.   Back to back 400+ mile days really wears one down.  It saddens me to see all these rolling hills and mounds (otherwise known as Alabama) and not be able to take a stroll or even a few pictures.  The 30 something degree day kind of stinks too.  Oh well, tomorrow we plan on making a break for the beach and I think there will be a few less shells by the time we get through.