Road Trips : Bi-coastal 2001 : Page 6
Monday 9 April 2001
Aunt Lucille's 84th birthday luncheon, at which I was surrounded by many familiar people I'm related to (but I'm not sure how) and one really well-behaved and laid-back dog which I wanted for my very own.
Yes, there was sweet tea.
Mom's new RAM arrived today too. I installed it in her iMac. This is not something I ever want to do again. I hate using that much profanity around my mom. She also got a scanner, which provided significantly fewer headaches.
Tuesday 10 April 2001
My rental car turned out to be an enormous 2001 Buick Regal. I chose it over the Intrepid just because my dad has a Regal, so I knew where all the buttons were.
Or so I thought.
Annoying things about Buick Regals:
- The headlights don't turn off until a good while after the ignition is off and the doors are shut.
- The radio doesn't turn off until you open the door, which was a very disturbing realization for me as I parked at the Burger King in Winston-Salem.
- The ashtray was obviously designed by either a sadist or an anti-smoking activist.
- The "low tire" light needs to go away.
Anyhow, once I had the car, I toured Winston-Salem for a while, looking for old supermarkets and urban grit, while completely forgetting to seek out the seashell-shaped gas station.
Later this afternoon, my dad and I, armed with new information, went looking for that tombstone again. This time we found it. It didn't photograph as well as the rest of Eden. We also drove by the house my dad grew up in.
Actually, I drove. It was a little odd; I'm not used to driving my dad around. He rarely lets anyone drive him anywhere. But we wanted to take the spiffy new Regal, so...
Cool thing I learned today: my grandafther (who died long before I was born) was fired from a textile mill in the 1930s for being a union organizer...