Damsel in distress, water and coffee

So I couldn't wait to get out of Jackson today. Seems like everybody but me knew about the voodoo and all sorts of other things that have happened there so I'm not sure if thats what I was picking up on but I've never had a reaction to a place quite as strongly as that. I was almost scared to go to sleep and had a pretty restless one at that combined with being woken up at 6:30am with the people next door leaving and then the herd of elephants above me bootscooting or whatever the hell they were doing at 8am. Lets just say that Jackson Mississippi doesn't agree with me.

So shortly after I headed off today a warning light flashed on the dashboard of the car. It was the weirdest looking light and I had no idea what it was supposed to indicate. It came on really briefly yesterday then disappeared and I was going to google it once I got to Jackson but after I got so creeped out I forgot about it. Anyway I pulled over at a gas station to see if there was a mechanic that could take a look at it but nope, no mechanics on site. So I talked to the lady behind the counter and she roped in this elderly gentleman who had come in to pay for his gas and when I asked him if he knew anything about cars he replied "well I'd like to think so" so I'm thinking yay an expert of some sort.... uh no. When I showed him the warning light he kinda scratched his head and had a blank look in his eyes. He went to check that the doors were all shut properly and suggested I take the car back if I thought I had a problem because he thought I didn't.

The more I looked at the warning light the more it started to look like a cross section of a tire so I thought it might be a tire pressure warning so I head off to the air pump thingo. When I actually took a good look at the tires the front two did look a lil bulgy at the bottoms so I proceeded to start inflating the tires or so I thought. It was a weird looking gauge because of course I'm used to the Aussie ones so I just do what I think is right and start pumping.... but it doesn't quite seem to be doing anything. I clicked the gauge and it hissed so it appeared to be working okay... so I do the back right and front right and I'm on the left front when the lady from the gas station comes outside to have a smoke (!). Behind me pulls up another car with two black guys in it to use the air pump and as one of them goes to go inside the lady asks him if he's able to help me. I tell him that I think it's the tires and show him the light and he goes to pump it up then laughs and says it's not even on and that I probably need to put more money in it. Money in it?? yeah... It costs $1 to buy air. Fucking rip off. Buy air??? Anyway..... I get a couple of quarters out of the car and feed it into the thing which I now see does say $1 but didn't notice that before. So he kindly inflates the tires while I'm babbling on about how much the psi is here in the states versus australia and blah de blah de blah and he asks me to check the warning light again and bingo! gone! So I thank him profusely and head back on the road. No more warning signal but the steering wheel does shudder a bit so I dunno whether the tires need more air or whether it needs an alignment or balance or what. I'm going to check the air pressure again before I leave tomorrow as I don't know what the guy pumped it to and he only did 3 tires so maybe all 4 need doing? I dunno but I'm pretty sure its just the front two that would make it shudder a little. Annoying. If it continues after more air I'm going to have to ring the rental company and see what they say.

The other thing that is odd here is the water. Apart from it tasting strange, I dunno what they put in it but my hair is so shiny and glossy since I've been here. I've often wondered how Americans get hair like that so I dunno if they put conditioner in the water or something but I'm liking it. Well apart from the taste that is. And speaking of taste they really do butcher coffee here. The last cup I had at Jackson was seriously one of the worst cups of coffee I have ever tasted. I can't even remember a worse cup, I dunno what they did  to it to make it taste so gross. I'd get my own plunger but I would have to spend weeks trying to find a decent coffee to put in it... so I guess sugar and a tiny pinch of salt to take away the bitterness will have to do. brrrrrr  I actually stopped to order a cappuchino from MacDonalds and what a rigamarole. First it was what flavour do I want, none. Do I want full cream, half cream or 2% milk. full cream. Was I sure I didn't want a flavour? No. Handed over my money then the chick that was actually making my coffee turned around to ask me whether I was really sure I didn't want a flavour in it with such an incredulous tone in her voice. They questioned me 3 times why I didn't want a flavour in it and so I said vanilla in the end so I could just get my damn coffee and in the end it was just so sugary sweet... It was weird that they just couldn't comprehend why I wouldn't want a flavor in it. How bout coffee flavour????? geeeeeez....

Not quite sure where I'm going tomorrow but still heading towards Scottsboro. I haven't checked to see how far away it is from here so I might make it tomorrow. If not, who knows :) Will let ya know.