Travel and Activities

My journey will begin on May 26th 2012 and will last six days as I travel to the city of Tuskegee Alabama. The journey will include three days of travel and three days of recreation, sightseeing and observation in the city of Tuskegee and the surrounding area. The total travel time to my destination will be approximately fourteen hours covering a distance of almost 830 miles, making my total roundtrip travel time almost 28 hours spanning 1,660 miles. I have created a budget plan for the trip and have allotted just over one thousand dollars for expenses, including: food, gasoline, one skydiving ticket, hotel reservations and emergency cash stash. I plan on listening to mostly southern musical artists on the way there and back and have already collected several albums by bands such as: The Band, Johnny Cash, Wilson Pickett, Muddy Waters, Tommy Johnson and Carl Perkins. It is my hope that by immersing myself in the culture, geography, and community of the area, I will be able to glean a deeper understanding of themes present in Ralph Ellison’s “Flying Home”.

I plan to split the drive to Tuskegee between two days, making my first stop in Hammond Louisiana. I plan to leave by 8:00am and drive, (mostly on I-10) for approximately eight hours, arriving in Hammond at 5:00pm. I plan to stop in Lake Charles Louisiana for a mid-afternoon meal at renowned restaurant A-Mazen’s Seafood, for a bit of authentic southern style seafood. By staying at my cousin’s home in Hammond I will save money on lodging and food costs, as they will not charge me for room and board. Additionally, I will get to enjoy yet another southern specialty, my cousin Joanne’s famous Cajun Gumbo.

I hope to depart from Hammond around noon on May 27th and complete my journey to the city of Tuskegee by 7:00pm. I will be stopping off in Montgomery Alabama at Auburn University Montgomery for a short period in the afternoon. There is an on-campus Disc golf course and I am excited to be able to enjoy my favorite sport in a strange state. I have chosen to stop in Montgomery to play Disc golf because there are not any listed courses in Tuskegee. If all goes well, I plan on checking into my hotel, (The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center) around seven in the evening just before I grab a bite to eat at The Whispering Oaks Restaurant.

Day three of my journey begins with the Memorial Weekend Fly In at Moton Airfield. It was so I could attend this festival that I decided to plan my trip on this particular weekend in May. The festival is a commemoration for the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen and consists of many air shows and appearances by actual black pilots of the 1940’s. It is my hope that by spending the day at the actual airfield of the Tuskegee Airmen, enjoying a festival celebrating them and hopefully meeting one of the surviving pilots that I will glean a deeper understanding of the individuals, and their experience as it relates to the Ralph Ellison story and the region as a whole. In the evening I intend to stop by one of the local bars called P B’s Blues Bar Inc for a little local music, interaction with the locals and some tasty beverages.

Day four will consist of me flying in a plane and skydiving for the first time. Courtesy of Opelika Skydiving, I will be lifted from the runway of Moton Airfield and flown high into the sky to be dropped and begin accelerating toward the countryside at a rate of 9.8 meters per second. I will have to take an education course and attend an instructional presentation before I am dropped in tandem with an instructor into free fall, all for a cost of 240 dollars. I want to know what the southern countryside looks like from a mile above the ground, to experience weightlessness and the sensation of falling to the earth. Perhaps once I have done this I will better understand what it means to truly fall/fly home. After completing this task I expect to be tried so I have allotted time for dinner and wine at Soul Inn before I will retire to my hotel room for the night.

Day five will be my last day in Tuskegee and I plan to spend it sightseeing and trespassing. I will start the day with a visit to Tuskegee University, (formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute) to see the campus, talk to students and faculty as well as visit the Booker T. Washington memorial statue. Mr. Ellison attended this university and I hope to get a feel for what his college experience was like relative to my own and that of the typical southerner. I would like to know how he could come up with a story like “Flying Home” and hope that by interacting with some of the surroundings I might gain some insight. If I have time to visit one of the local museums, I will but the afternoon and evening of my final day are reserved for trespassing. I will drive to the outskirts of town and find a farm that has a fence low enough for traversing. Once on the farm I intend to explore and find landscapes which could potentially fit the setting of “Flying Home”. It is my hope that by existing illegally on a strange farm in Alabama I might be able to experience some of Todd’s apprehension and therefore better understand his thoughts and emotional reactions in regard to his surroundings in the story.

Day six of my journey will be devoted entirely to the drive home. I expect it to take me 13.5 hours to span all 830 miles of the journey home accounting for a few gasoline and restroom stops. But when I return from this trip, I hope to carry with me a more complete understanding of Tuskegee Alabama, “Flying Home”, Ralph Ellison and the Tuskegee Airmen; I might even grab some souvenirs on my way out of town. Ever since I read Mr. Ellison’s story I have been fascinated by both its content and origin and it is for this reason that I chose to make the trip to Tuskegee. Once completed by myself or anyone, I feel that this trip will shed light on some specific aspects of southern life as well as offer a unique insight into one of the South’s more captivating authors.