Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Coming up with ideas for your trip

This is how I came up with the ideas for today's post. My point is that if you spend some time reading about the place you're at and checking out Google streetview, you will get more ideas and actually save time. You'll also make your story more "real".
  1. I checked out my itinerary to see where I'd be and found Greenville that way.
  2. I used Google Maps streetview to travel some of the way and got a feeling of what the town and the highway looked like. I took some pictures with screen capture.
  3. I checked the weather, and discovered the fog warning that way.
  4. I remembered Walgreens from my visits to the States and checked if Greenville had one - they did!
  5. I went to the Walgreens webpage and checked out what they carried nowadays and what I might buy.
  6. I checked the IDEA archive and found the woman and her story and found a way to fit her into my story (I got the idea from Chelline's blogpost)

A trip to... Walgreens. And some fog!

I stayed for a full week in New Orleans and went on a bunch of tours. This means I've had to drive for quite a bit to get back on track timewise. Today, however, I didn't get much driving done, and I'll tell you why below!

Skärmklipp från Google Maps
I just passed the small town of Greenville (pop. about 34,000) and the highway is a lot of the same. Right now there is not even a view of the river. In fact, it looks kind of lika Skåne. Flat with farmland. Even the weather is boring - a foggy 5 degrees C. Not very exciting:( In fact, the fog this morning was so thick they had an alert out. This is what it said: "A DENSE FOG ADVISORY MEANS VISIBILITIES WILL FREQUENTLY BE REDUCED TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER MILE. IF DRIVING... SLOW DOWN... USE YOUR LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS... AND LEAVE PLENTY OF DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE VEHICLE AHEAD OF YOU". Since I don't feel comfortable driving in that kind of weather, I decided to just park the car and try to ammuse myself to the best of my ability!

Luckily, Greenville was big enough to have a proper Walgreens, and I can always find things I do AND don't need at a Walgreens:) We don't really have stores like it in Sweden, even if we're getting closer since the deregulation of the pharmacies. It's like a pharmacy, food, health and everything-store:) The closest we get to it in Sweden is Coop Forum, but their not often located in the center of towns like Walgreens tend to be. I always check out the make-up and magazine aisles even if don't necessarily buy anything. Today, I was so bored, I splurged though. My idea was to wait out the fog in the car with a bunch of magazines and a new polish:) I found a quick dry polish from a brand I haven't seen in Sweden, a bunch of magazines, and some classic Hershey's Kisses Chocolate.

The coolest thing though was that I met a woman who was really talkative and we ended up chatting in the fast food aisle for half an hour! Her great-great-grandfather was actually born in Grenada (a nearby county) as a slave and the family have lived there since then! Her dialect was fantastic! She had the kind a Southern drawl you hear in movies. I guess they do talk like that in real life as well!

Anyway - my nails have been done, I've finished some of the magazines and ALL of the chocolate and I'm on the road again. I'll just step on it now while the weather is still clear. It's just after 2pm and I have  25 Swedish miles to cover before I reach Memphis. I'll try to make it in time for dinner! See you later:)

Monday, February 4, 2013

Checklist Two

  1. Finish your first post!
  2. Comment on two other posts from one of your classmates' road trip.
  3. Check your travel plan and see where you might be today (which state). Go to the Dialect Archive and listen to two recordings from the state you're in. For your next blog post: you are  supposed to run in to/ meet one of the persons you listen to.
  4. Start your second blog posts (do this one individually if ou don not have another agreement with me)
  5. I will give you feedback on what you have done so far! Use this to correct your first blog post and do well on your second blog post.