Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I was out of Kentucky almost before I knew it. The state tapers to a point at its western
edge, and I was cutting across a chunk of it only 40 miles wide. In a veritable eyeblink in
terms of American traveling time I was in Tennessee. It isn't often you can dispense with
a state in less than an hour, and Tennessee would not detain me much longer. It is an odd-
looking state, shaped like a Dutch brick, stretching more than 500 miles from east to west,
butonlyi00milesfromtoptobottom.ItslandscapewasmuchthesameasthatofKentucky
and Illinois-indeterminate farming country laced with rivers, hills and religious zealots-but
I was surprised, when I stopped for lunch at a Burger
KinginJackson,athowwarmitwas.Itwas83degrees, according toasignonthedrive-in
bank across the street, a good z0 degrees higher than it had been in Carbondale that morn-
ing. I was still obviously deep in the Bible Belt. A sign in the yard of a church next door
said, CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. (The question, of course, is: What do you say when you
strike your thumb with a hammer?) I went into the Burger King. A girl at the counter said,
“Kin I hep yew?” I had entered another country.
