MY LAST ENTRY, THOUGH I MAY EDIT/ADD UNTIL I DIE:

I am so glad I took this trip -- glad to see sites that I have studied much of my life, glad to spend time with Amity and James (and to have Amity travel back to North Carolina with me), glad to spend time pondering and writing about my experiences, glad to know that a few of you were actually reading what I wrote. I appreciate and admire your stamina.

SERENDIPITY happened on this trip:

1) A couple of days before I left for Austin, a co-worker recommended The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I bought the book on CD and listened to it as I drove to Austin. I just happened to hear the chapter about Medgar Evers's death the night before I saw his home in Jackson. And my niece Haley, who lives in Memphis, recommended the book to me just this morning, not knowing I had "read" it. (Again, I recommend this book to you. :-)

2) As I said in one of the first entries (July 1), my friend Lisa gave me a magazine article before reporting on the annual celebration of To Kill A Mockingbird in Monroeville, Alabama.
As I prepared to leave Nashville on Sunday morning (July 11) -- as Amity practiced yoga in a studio nearby -- I turned on CBS Sunday Morning and saw a segment about the annual celebration of To Kill A Mockingbird in Monroeville, Alabama. Nice "bookends" for the trip! Lee's book, and the subsequent movie, both speak to my considerations of race on this trip, and Monroeville is so typical of many small towns in the Deep South during that time.

3) The Medgar Evers home (and museum) is not open except by appointment. I happened to drive by at a time that the curator was there. She gave me a personal tour, we talked a long while, and she had known Medgar Evers in the early 60s. She is still in touch with his wife and brother.

4) While exploring Money, Mississippi I met an old gentleman who knew all about the Emmett Till case (though he "wasn't telling all he knew" :-) ) and who had knew the primary figures in that case.

5) I spent a wonderful five days with Amity, James, Ruby, and Holden -- and was lucky enough to have Amity beside me on the long trek home! I went to yoga class three times. I ate cupcakes and watched Ruby play in the dog park and helped Amity pick out a dress for a friend's wedding (September) and went swimming with James and drank a gin and tonic by the pool.

6) I think I drove about 3,000 miles on this trip -- many hundreds of it through land that was as flat as a pancake. As we drove on I-40 through Tennessee and I saw that first mountain in the distance, I realized anew the beauty of the place where I grew up and call home.

Thanks for reading these entries!