Having my mum with me week has been fun, because – believe it or not – she’s bigger chatterbox than me.

I leave her for thirty seconds in Walmart the other night (shopping for camping equipment, there was no dedicated camping shop in town) and when I catch up with her again she’s telling her life story to the woman in line in front of her.

At a gas station just outside the delightful Oxford in Louisiana – we end up having a chat to the Tanzanian immigrant whos gas station it is, about the socio-economic problems of Memphis, and thus why he moved further south nearer Oxford – and again, I didn’t instigate it.

When we went to the Superman museum in Metropolis IL and the Moonshine Burger store (Population of Moonshine … 2!) it was easy for me to hit REC on my video camera and get a quote from someone as they’ve already been warmed up by my mum merrily chatting away to them.

Also at the tip of other southern Illinois, the dude at the gas station tricks me and tells me exactly where I’m from in London. How the hell does he know that? Is he some dialect specialist? No … it’s because my mum told him about 90 second prior whilst I was having a wee, that’s why. It’s OK though, I got my own back my asking him if parts of Illinois were in the south, and he laughed. Actually, he reasoned that there was a whole patch of counties in the southern part of the state that should be “Neutral … a bit like Switzerland”.

We stop at a campground that night, where a guy nice by the name of Tyler is camped next to us with his son T.J. They’re from New Jersey and were making their way to California – as they’re moving house. Tyler’s wife had gone ahead with the dog, and now the father was taking his son on an east-west roadtrip across the USA camping as they went. My mum wasted no time at all in getting chatty with him, and ended up doing more talking than me, it was fun. Tyler also very kindly offered up some of the burgers on the grill that they were cooking, it was very nice of him.

The next day we push on … into Indiana … which I’m afraid to say may just be my least favourite state on the whole trip so far (and not just because of its fucked-up time zone tribulations, where the whole state can’t decide on what time zone to be in, so the time can change depending on what county you’re in … madness), it’s because it’s just a bit … well, dull. I knew we were in trouble when we crossed the state border and the welcome sign clutched at straws by stating “Welcome to Indiana – Lincoln’s boyhood home!”, whereas Illinois clearly has already got the rights on old Abe, “Land of Lincoln” has been on its license plates as its slogan for ages now, whereas Indiana’s license plates? … are either blank, or just say “In God We Trust”. Dull.

Our server at dinner last night wasn’t too enamoured with Indiana – her home state, or her home town – Lafayette – where we’d stopped for the night too – simply because it was halfway between where we’d started and Chicago. “Why have you stopped HERE!” protested Tiva – 27 yrs old, married twice, four children and living in “A crappy podunk town 20 minutes out of Lafayette” (I actually got this all out of her, not my mum – for once) who over the course of, er .. three course, could think of NOTHING nice to say about her home town, or her home state. “I’m getting out of here .. to North Carolina” she said, with a look of bitterness and anger in her eyes, and I felt so bad for her I tipped her 30%. I really hope it’s not just an act that she does on all customers in an attempt to boost her tips.

And even today my mum couldn’t stop … (she just won’t stop ’till she gets enough … wait for it … ) as we were on our way to check out MJ’s house in Gary, Indiana and again at a gas station, we pull up in the lot next to this old biker dude, and I run in to get a drink. By the time I come out, my mum is deep in conversation with him, and sitting on his beautiful bike ready for me to take a photo. I think she just might be enjoying this more than I am.

(Jacko’s birth-house by the way has been turned into a ‘Mini Shrine’ And by that, I mean it’s been roped off by the police, a small collection of naff teddy bears and wilting flowers sit outside, and a whole bunch of sketchy dudes shout at you trying to get you to buy a poor quality $10 MJ t-shirt. This suburb of Gary, Indiana did not feel like a safe place, so I snapped my obligatory Jacko photo, and got the hell out of there with a big scary dude shouting “Hey, hey you, camera guy! Come take MY photo”. I didn’t take his photo).

I’m in Chicago now for the weekend, it’s downtime and video editing again. I have of course updated my progress map, and added the latest photos to the facebook group too. If you’re the last person on earth still not to be using facebook (yes, you know who you are), I’d like to be able to link you to more than just a photo – say – like this one, but annoyingly because I’m posting the photos within a group rather than just my own photo collection it doesn’t appear as if you can share out the whole album in a non-facebook way, which IS something I can do with my Abandoned America and 48 plates collections.

Next week will be weird. I will hit the road Monday and be back by myself for the first time in three weeks. I’ve no idea if I’ll miss having company, or really enjoy being in complete control again of what I want to do, when I want to do it.

All I do know is I’m looking at this map [right] of the USA – population density, and it suddenly make me realise that I’m about to go and do the half of America, that is vast, open, and nowhere near as populated as my first few weeks have been. The tube-named places now become a lot further apart, and the distances between towns become much greater. I also suspect I’m about to see some of the most dazzling sights on my trip though. Hang on in their people, this mother of all road trips has got a long way to go yet.

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