red stick aka final destination

Today was the big day.

We drove into Baton Rouge.

Bloody Stick.

Red Stick, really, but based upon a red stick, bloody with animal carcasses, marking warring tribal territories.

The requested destination, Baton Rogue, appeared to be a non-destination.

Research was done online as well as asking around about it for weeks previous to leaving. We heard lots of great things about New Orleans, not surprisingly, but Baton Rouge, not a thing.

However, Baton Rouge, spoken with an accent, was the final destination and the graduating girl would not be swayed.

The entire notion of the trip was based on a child-like whim.

It is a treasure to have whims.
I want to gift my daughter with the notion that it’s ok to drive for days to satisfy a craving, even if it is just to realize that the fantasy and the reality are different things. And maybe, just maybe, there will be perfect and amazing things that happen along the way that make it all make sense.

When she was a little girl there was a favorite book that was checked out as a book-on-tape from the library that was renewed a million times and listened to again and again. As it turns out, her little sissy would listen outside her door to the same story again and again.

In the story there is a little girl who visits Baton Rouge and to the little girl ears and the inspiration of the southern accented story-telling, this seemed the perfect dream to attain.

Today we left the super darling Memphis, drove through Jackson, Mississippi and as we left Jackson, headed to Baton Rouge, we began the story on in the van.

My Louisiana Sky.

As we drove, the landscape matched the story. Names matched the landscape and the story ended the moment we took our final exit to Baton Rouge.

From the backseat I heard "we have reached our final destination".