November 3 am

Like all criminals, we prefer to travel by dark. Some of us sleeping fitfully, as though we might get caught and turned back, some of us adjusting better to the hypnotic thrum of the diesel. “Chicago” blurs into a “Little House on the Prairie” clone to be replaced by “A Prairie Home Companion” on the bus’s DVD player. Our minds play tricks on us as we drift in and out of sleep as our imaginations visit the US Midwest while we head south to the Gulf Coast. In Elizabethtown KY we stop so Jim and Mary, our Badder companions move into the Best Western for a well-deserved rest and Phil takes over piloting our bus. Some of us watch the sun rise out the left side of the bus. The rest are grateful to be shaken awake as we pull into Cracker Barrel for breakfast and another warm Southern Welcome. They count how many times we say “eh”.