Seatmate on the night bus…. “If I fall asleep, I might come over on you.”  It’s the overnight local Greyhound, from Washington, DC, to Knoxville, TN, via Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke, VA.  So  many characters, with so many stories.  And for me, being a middle-class white woman half asleep in the darkness is the lens I see it through.  Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” makes an appearance at 24 min.

Another highlight of my August travels in KY was getting questioned by the Whitley Co sheriff’s deputy b/c I was on foot on a rural road.  He was suspicious of my intentions, and my passport card, and threatened to arrest me for multiple things.  Aha, but, “I’m Ruthy, and I have a recorder.” – almost the entire interaction is recorded.  It starts at about minute 32.      The recording is followed by my reactions, and some helpful guidance from hitchwiki.org.

And – at the beginning of the show – Today is  my dad’s 82nd birthday!   He (Jim Woodring) shares with me (recorded when I was in KY a couple weeks ago) a piece he wrote – all true – about a new “environmentally friendly” clothes washing product named “Swish” – when, really, the “environmentally friendly” thing to do is to not wash every piece of clothing so darn much.