On the Road Again...

My mechanic has steam cleaned my motor and all the parts under and around after checking to see if the rebuild they just did is leaking – which it is not, goods news and also scary news: I cannot handle another repair bill and be able to make it to the border by the 10th, which is my current goal.

After a test drive and not finding any leaks, I’m instructed to drive to Texas, stopping every 200 or so miles to check the dipstick and look under the truck for leaks. I’m also told I should break the rebuilt engine in for at least 1 maybe 2000 miles before running veggie oil and so I decide to postpone the Philadelphia trip for now and head directly to Texas.

Eagle Pass is a little over 1000 miles from Atlanta, so it’s the exact right distance.

I’ve changed the tires, filled by propane tanks so I can cook and heat up water for coffee, filled up the diesel tank, did a last minute run to Trader Joe’s for eggs and arugula, loaded the few donations I collected here in Atlanta for the border – so it’s time to hit the road!

I’m heading south on I85 through Alabama in case I get tired – the rest areas on that part of 85 tend to be new and clean. I’ll pick up I10 as I head deeper into the south through Mississippi god damn, Louisiana and then Texas.

I can't wait to take the temperature of this part of the country...

When the people who repair your tires know as much about our taxes and war as I do

Again, I attempt to arise by 6a.m. - I've got a few tasks to accomplish before I can realistically hit the road again and so I set about optimistically to get things done.

I had intended to go to my mechanic first to be there by 7a.m. when they open – but it’s 8a.m. before I am even able to get out of bed, telling myself I can sleep in and still get it together to go.

My first task is to load anything I’ve collected and stored at my daughter’s for the border. It’s not much, in fact it’s just a few items.

Then I secure the way back, the camper, fill my water bottle and heat up my coffee, and head out. I realize I have to pass my tire place on the way to my mechanic and as it is already after 9a.m., I decide to stop there first.

I end up handing over the two brand new tires my dearest chosen family lesbian couple bought for me before my RRB broke down when I didn’t have the time to have them mounted and put on my RRB.

I end up having a conversation with the young man worker who is taking care of my tires. After he has read my truck he begins talking full of knowledge about how the government is spending our tax dollars on war, how we the people are not demanding our own tax dollars to be spent on us, how corporations are directing our tax dollars through our government, and how those CEO's end up on the very government agencies originally set up to protect us, our rights, services and environment.

A discussion most people ould expect only on a college campus, not on the asphalt of a tractor-trailer truck repair shop.

He is bi-racial, Black and Hispanic, young 30's (I'm guessing) and part of this family business I take my truck to for tires whenever I can. He and his whole family are bi-lingual, although I don’t attempt to have a political discussion with him in Spanish.

But I do get to have another conversation with a young womon who speaks very little english who has come because another worker called her to come see my truck. He wants to show her the “End Violence Against Women” side of my truck. She has tears in her eyes as she relates to la violencia and el racismo contra la mujer.

She understands my Spanish, and I think I understand the Spanish she speaks with the worker who has joined us at the side of the truck.

I love the people of Atlanta.