{"id":467,"date":"2011-09-24T17:57:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T23:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/ChainsBreakingChains\/?p=467"},"modified":"2011-09-24T17:57:09","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T23:57:09","slug":"diagonals-surprises-and-a-respite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/2011\/09\/24\/diagonals-surprises-and-a-respite\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagonals, surprises and a respite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trying to relate the events of the last three days will be tough.\u00a0 However, the title does pretty much lay down the ground work.\u00a0 I have been traveling in a diagonal across Tennessee and Arkansas.\u00a0 Had a wonderful\u00a0 change in pace while in Memphis,l and all of that peppered with a couple of surprises that gave a special color to the trip.
\nTwo days ago I continued my journey back home, heading out of North-Eastern Tennessee.\u00a0 Since the region is towards the Western transition line between EST and CST, I woke up to a very dark morning.\u00a0 Further, a peak out the window of my small cabin revealed a very dense fog all over the area.\u00a0 A quick check of the weather on my phone brought warnings of very dense fog and low visibility until 9 in the morning.\u00a0 This gave me the excuse to sleep for another hour, but after that, it was time to get out and face the road, if I wanted to make it into Cordova, East of Memphis, at a decent time.
\nI confess that all my negative thoughts about interstates were challenged on that day.\u00a0 The road, even when enshrouded in a complex matrix of cobweb-like fog was just magnificent.\u00a0 The Northern section of Tennessee is further enhanced by endless lines of blooming golden rods on either side of the roads.\u00a0 However, the price goes to the section between Knoxville and Nashville.\u00a0\u00a0 I have no words to describe the wonderful slopes and forests.\u00a0 This area was made even better by the sun burning through the clouds and painting everything in a saturated set of colors.
\nAt around 5:30 in the afternoon I found my way to my cousin Armando’s home in Cordova.\u00a0 He had just pulled into the driveway.\u00a0 The timing was perfect.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter, Amy arrived with little Owen and little Lilly.\u00a0 Big and excited hugs, and calls for ‘tio Pincho’ warmed my heart enourmously.\u00a0 We spent the rest of the evening catching up, and then called it the day.
\nYesterday morning was my day to cross the final T on this trip.\u00a0 I had scheduled a trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, at the location of the old Loraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.\u00a0 I readied myself, and as I was loading up my camera and few other items on the BeMWu, I dropped Mr. GPS.\u00a0 ‘No biggie’, I thought, ‘Mr. GPS was built to take the weather and knocks of adventure travel’.\u00a0 Well, biggie it was.\u00a0 Mr. GPS refused to show his informational screen to me after that, and nothing I have tried has made him change his mind.\u00a0 So, the main problem was to find a way to navigate to the museum from Armando’s house.\u00a0 Mr. Telephone came to the rescue.\u00a0 Using headphones and the cell phone’s built in GPS, I was able to get to the museum by just listening to the spoken instructions from the phone.
\nI had visited the museum eight years ago, but at that time my heart, mind and soul were in a different place, and while I appreciated MLK’s work back then, it did not have the significance that it has had for\u00a0 me in the last several years.\u00a0 I had listened to the \u201cI Have a Dream Speech\u201d on my ipod three times while I rode across Tennessee the day before.\u00a0 The words still rang in my mind while a approached the site and saw the Loraine Motel sign.
\nAs I walked through the different exhibit section, the enormity of the civil rights movement became a more tightly knit fabric.\u00a0 Sandra’s choreography on the life and work of such central figures as Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth, created a stronger set of fibers, along with Steve Rooks work on the \u201cThe Little Rock Nine\u201d.\u00a0 In my mind I now struggle with ways to translate those momentous achievements into a movement that struggles against the underground oppression that defines modern day slavery.
\nAfter me museum it was time for a visit of another type.\u00a0 Rufus Smith, who had been our pastor at City of Refuge in Houston, moved to Memphis about a year ago.\u00a0 So a visit with him was mandatory.\u00a0 I met him, and his wife Jacqueline for a mid afternoon lunch, and we spent an amazing time talking about the new abolition movement, humanitarian work in a church centered context, and the role of patience, and obedience to God’s will.\u00a0 Time flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to go join Armando, and the rest of the family for little Lilly’s last soccer game of the season.\u00a0 The whole family was there, and it was such a joyous time, watching 5-year olds play 3-on-3, with such spirit and energy.
\nAfter the game we went home, and spent a very pleasant rest of the evening doing laundry and talking, until it was time to go to bed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

At the Cross<\/p><\/div>\n

This morning I said my good-byes, wishing I could stay longer, but also feeling the need to be back home.\u00a0 Without Mr. GPS to guide me through, I had to navigate by written directions, and use the sun as my affirmation for proper heading.\u00a0 I spent most of the day on route 79, which carries travelers through areas covered with vast cotton fields, and other crops.\u00a0 The greens, yellows and browns combined to create a live pointillist tapestry that Seurat would have been proud of.\u00a0 Small towns and granaries were magically placed to avoid a sense of monotony.
\nThis went on until I reached Pine Bluff.\u00a0 East of the city, an almost apocalyptic scene of what seemed to be thousands of piles of pine trees greeted me. All of the sudden, the destination of the rows of trucks carrying piles of trees I had seen many times during my travel, had become evident.\u00a0 This was the processing a shipping place for all the logging I had witnessed.
\nRight after Pine Bluff, the landscape radically changed.\u00a0 The road started undulating, and the planted fields gave way to forests.\u00a0 While I rode this path filled with joy, the lack of any feedback from GPS or maps kept pushing a little button in my mind.\u00a0 At around 3 pm, a white tail deer stood next to the road before jumping back into the forest.\u00a0 A bit further up, another deer laid dead on the side of the road.\u00a0 Now I had something else to worry about.\u00a0 Apparently deer in this area have not heard about the fact that they should only challenge drivers, and riders, towards dusk and at night.\u00a0 My eyes and brain entered scan mode, constantly on the look out for these four legged kamikazes.\u00a0 Thankfully we all got spared.
\nTonight I am signing off from Texarkana.\u00a0 Tomorrow I ride into Houston.\u00a0 Thanks again for all your prayers and support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to relate the events of the last three days will be tough.\u00a0 However, the title does pretty much lay down the ground work.\u00a0 I have been traveling in a diagonal across Tennessee and Arkansas.\u00a0 Had a wonderful\u00a0 change in pace while in Memphis,l and all of that peppered with a couple of surprises that… Read More »Diagonals, surprises and a respite<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2o6Hc-7x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}