Road Trip
Its mid-April and I’m driving across the South on my way to Apalach, with a detour in Port
Gibson, with my great friend and Apalach business partner, Mel Livingston. Yesterday we participated in
a tennis tournament – I would have said “played” but that would have been hyperbole, given the way
we performed. We got in 64 games in a 22 hour stretch and our 65 year old bodies are struggling with
tasks like getting in and out of the car. We’re attacking the problem with gin and tonics and sour mash
whiskey (last night) and ibuprofen and copious amounts of Starbucks coffee (today).
It’s raining on and off so East Texas and Louisiana look freshly washed and amazingly green, with
patches of bluebonnets in Texas fields giving way to lush forests in Louisiana and finally new crops
sprouting in the Mississippi river bottom land. It’s an easy trip, with lots of talk of business opportunities
with real estate in Florida, Savannah and Vermont. Mel and I never get tired of talking about projects
and if we get 5% of them done in our lifetime it will be a great accomplishment. When we get tired of
dreaming we pop in a CD of an American History course from The Learning Company (which I highly
recommend for long drives.)
The purpose of our trip is to check up on and make strategic decisions about our project, the
renovation of a hundred thirty year old building in Apalachicola, FL into a café/wine bar and modern
general store and 4 efficiency apartments upstairs. The side trip to Port Gibson, MS, is to check on the
furniture and furnishings in my childhood home, which we’re closing; to see if will fit in our project. My
parents have recently moved to Austin, along with some of their furniture, but they’ve downsized so my
brothers and I have divided the remains of the 50 years that my parents have lived there. Mel is helping
me decide what will fit into our project. We arrive about 8:00 and immediately revive our gin and
bourbon therapy, take a quick look around and fix a supper of rotisserie chicken, cabbage, new potatoes
a corn on the cob. Tired, satiated and happy we settle into a gentle rain aided Mississippi slumber.