just beyond the city lights

I love road trips. I love the open road. I love singing at the top of my lungs with all of the air vents pointed at me, on full blast, so that my hair blows in a thousand directions and I am the star of my own music video. I love to watch the landscape of America evolve outside my window and try to distinguish the different crops as I pass through endless fields. I love stopping at gas stations, restaurants, and coffee houses to make conversation with the locals. I love to drive.

I drove to Muskogee, Oklahoma for Memorial Day weekend. I know what you're about to say. "Why would you want to drive to Muskogee, Oklahoma?" Then I say, "Oh, my best friend and roommate from college lives there." And then you say, "Wow she must be very lucky to have a friend like you. I would never drive to Muskogee Oklahoma for the weekend."

This exact conversation happened many times this past Memorial Day weekend. One time was much more interesting than the others. And it happened on the way heading west on I40.

After I had made my stop at the Community Bakery for dinner in Little Rock, I got back on the road and headed west. I was almost to the Arkansas line when I started to feel a little sleepy and shaky so I thought I should take a break. My friend Dan had always told me to take frequent breaks from driving so that I wouldn't have a heart attack. I can't really remember the medical evidence he backed his claim with but I thought a stop couldn't hurt.

I stopped at the next town I came to. I knew I was getting close to the end of civilization for a while and I had seen a sign for a Starbucks a few miles back. I found the Starbucks and placed my order. "One, Tall, Pomegranate Frapichino Tea". I knew from trying to order this drink in Nashville that it was being fazed out by Starbucks so; I took my chance and ordered the icy tea. Yes! The small town still had the tea mixture. I explained to the cashier that I was so excited that the tea was still available and she looked at me like I was and idiot. Evidently she hadn't gotten the memo from corporate.

I paid, and she asked me if I was from around here. I said no and then we exchanged the conversation previously described.

"Well, honey, you're almost to Muskogee, I mean, it is practically just beyond the city lights."

Just beyond the city lights? I asked myself. Had this woman ever seen city lights? Maybe I had misunderstood. Had she meant "just beyond the stop light?" The one stoplight of the town? I mean, I know that the town had a Starbucks and maybe to the locals that was the equivalent to a skyscraper, but city lights was taking it a little too far.

I continued down the road and successfully made it to my destination. I surprised Anna around midnight and we talked non-stop the whole weekend as planned.

Muskogee is a town with a handful of restraunts and shops sprinkled among rusty metal signs and concrete buildings. When people say, "Wow she must be very lucky to have a friend like you. I would never drive to Muskogee Oklahoma just for the weekend." I think yeah, we are lucky to have our friendship and we are blessed to be the kind of souls that enjoy the drive.