Atlanta 11pm-Jena 7am-Tuscaloosa 6pm-Atlanta 1am
Atlanta-Jena 11pm-7am
Left Atlanta at 11pm and drove all night through Alabama and Mississippi and into Louisiana. Stopped at the most intense rest stop ever and ran into a whole bus load of people on their way to Jena too. We made friends. The most beautiful sunrise I think I've ever seen came between 6 and 6:30 Central time as we were driving our last hour to Jena.
Jena 7am-noonish
Got to Jena, but staties were blocking part of 127, so we made a quick right and found ourselves an.... "active" looking parking lot.... as in, there were a lot of cars for 7am in the middle of no where. So, we pull in and then realize we've driven into a parking lot filled with cop cars and undercover cop cars. Not only staties and cops from Jena, but also cops from all the surrounding towns.
Emily Frantz made us take refuge in the Wal-Mart parking lot while we gathered ourselves.
Found and alternate route and parked amongst cars and buses and tons and tons of people.
Got to the court house and it was already very crowded. Really good energy. Really friendly people. Lots of people stopped to chat... I guess we stood out because we were white.
Heard Al Sharpton speak. And Bell's father. Marched to the high school where it all started and then marches back. I can't believe how many people were there. An estimated 40-50 thousand.
Left around noon when it was getting hot and many people had moved onto Alexandria.
Were yelled at by a stupid statie for going around a retarded road block that blocked our route home.
Jena-Tuscaloosa 12pm-6pm
Rolling back through Louisiana, Mississippi and finally into Alabama
starting to feel cramped and sore...
Tuscaloosa 6pm-9pm
So, you know those movies about college kids that we always laugh at for the ridiculousness and inaccuracies? turns out, those movies have some validity.
Conservative frat boys.... in a hard core college town.... the thursday before a big game....
Frantz's friend told us 4 times to find a better cause to protest. And wanted a pledge to take his accounting quiz for him... and said something about teaching "american values" over seas... or something...
it hurt.
Tuscaloosa-Atlanta 9pm-1am
cramped, smelly, sleepy, wanting-to-brush-my-teeth.
so happy to see the Atlanta skyline, shower, and get into bed...
Now? BISCUITS AND COFFEE!!!!
Left Atlanta at 11pm and drove all night through Alabama and Mississippi and into Louisiana. Stopped at the most intense rest stop ever and ran into a whole bus load of people on their way to Jena too. We made friends. The most beautiful sunrise I think I've ever seen came between 6 and 6:30 Central time as we were driving our last hour to Jena.
Jena 7am-noonish
Got to Jena, but staties were blocking part of 127, so we made a quick right and found ourselves an.... "active" looking parking lot.... as in, there were a lot of cars for 7am in the middle of no where. So, we pull in and then realize we've driven into a parking lot filled with cop cars and undercover cop cars. Not only staties and cops from Jena, but also cops from all the surrounding towns.
Emily Frantz made us take refuge in the Wal-Mart parking lot while we gathered ourselves.
Found and alternate route and parked amongst cars and buses and tons and tons of people.
Got to the court house and it was already very crowded. Really good energy. Really friendly people. Lots of people stopped to chat... I guess we stood out because we were white.
Heard Al Sharpton speak. And Bell's father. Marched to the high school where it all started and then marches back. I can't believe how many people were there. An estimated 40-50 thousand.
Left around noon when it was getting hot and many people had moved onto Alexandria.
Were yelled at by a stupid statie for going around a retarded road block that blocked our route home.
Jena-Tuscaloosa 12pm-6pm
Rolling back through Louisiana, Mississippi and finally into Alabama
starting to feel cramped and sore...
Tuscaloosa 6pm-9pm
So, you know those movies about college kids that we always laugh at for the ridiculousness and inaccuracies? turns out, those movies have some validity.
Conservative frat boys.... in a hard core college town.... the thursday before a big game....
Frantz's friend told us 4 times to find a better cause to protest. And wanted a pledge to take his accounting quiz for him... and said something about teaching "american values" over seas... or something...
it hurt.
Tuscaloosa-Atlanta 9pm-1am
cramped, smelly, sleepy, wanting-to-brush-my-teeth.
so happy to see the Atlanta skyline, shower, and get into bed...
Now? BISCUITS AND COFFEE!!!!