The adventures of Heather, Wiet & Miles

Thursday was a good day for our transport. Wiet got his American driver’s license, and we got bikes.

Wiet was a bit nervous about his driving test. For no reason, he realised afterwards. The test consisted of driving around the block on some big roads with hardly any traffic, and driving through a residential neighbourhood. No maneuvers, no interstates, no sneaky one-way streets. Why his Belgian license didn’t cover that remains unclear.

Even better than a license is a bike. Heather got herself a Trek 7.3FX, and Wiet bought himself a Specialized Sequoia. Cycling through the streets of Memphis, after months of driving, walking or riding the silly trolley, feels liberating. We’re free again, finally.

Crawfish are tiny lobsters, and once a year 10,000 pounds of them get cooked on the parking lot of the Pier Restaurant in Memphis, during the annual crawfish boil. We went there last Sunday, to see strange contests – such as: lift as many (living) crawfish as you can from a bucket filled with water, using only… your teeth. I wonder what the Animal Liberation Front thinks about that – and of course to eat “mudbugs”, the more popular name for crawfish. It’s nasty eating, breaking them open, but oh so yummy. Everybody sitting in the sun on the bank of the Mississippi, watching the boats go by. Very simple, very perfect.

It was a very sunny day. That night we were both as red as those crawfish we ate. Revenge is theirs.

Last weekend we visited Bethany in Chattanooga, where she studies political and economic sciences.  Our visit in a nutshell: 

● walking, walking backwards, walking upwards (on Lookout mountain);

● sipping coffee, sipping beer, 

● goof-ups (forgetting our only valid driver’s license, locking the car keys in the trunk). We have a reputation to live up to…

● a Dorm. Still puzzling to foreigners, who have always had their own student room (often not bigger than a bird cage). Bethany shares an apartment with three other girls, one of which she shares a room with (Katherine). Her room mate compensates for the gloomy architecture of their dorm.

● hospitality. Katherine’s mother lives in the small town of Hixon, just outside of Chattanooga. She let us stay in her house. Most charming lady.

● Spectacularchitecture: the Hunter’s museum recently got a new addition. It sits on a rock high above the Tennessee River. Maybe the city hopes to generate a Bilbao-effect? Brand new, but it’s already falling apart. The glass pedestrian bridge next to it is not for people with fear of heights.

Chattanooga has two new fans.