here at last, tank g'd, we're here at last!

We rolled into jacksonville mid-day sunday – it was totally dead – we could hardly find a soul on the streets downtown. Jacksonville, the first town after crossing the georgia/florida border, seems huge and sprawling as l.a., except it looks like it’s grown up around lots & lots of water – bays & rivers - kinda southern eastcoast version of portland, without the mountains & greenery.
At a gas station last nite an older man, who had stood calmly to the side as a furious old white woman oozing wealth spat vehemous words at Ariel while while jerking her head & occasional limb at the truck, beseeched me as i approached the scene, ‘please don’t forget Jacksonville’. Now that i’m here in this sunday ghost town, searching for espresso, internet & folks, i feel his energy once again.
We did find the library, & although there were three floors each boasting several computers, internet access was limited to 30 minutes and there was a long waiting list – not for us. We returned to the truck to find a nasty note about california & traveling back…. We definitely need to be here, but we’re also desperate to connect w/other codepink wimmin so it’s off to the west coast (of florida) for us.
We arrived in Sarasota late sunday nite – Ariel, who seems to have friends in every part of this country, hooked us up w/her old childhood friend rachel & boyfriend, who graciously made space for us in their livingroom – i got the couch, Ariel took the floor. Rachel lives on the campus of Ringley Art School so we got to park the truck visible to lots of students, who gathered around, even at that late hour. And at that late hour, we rushed to the cafeteria to finish viewing 911, which was showing for a handful of students. The joys of traveling w/a 24year old! peace, sam